Sideways
by gogogeisha
Summary: AU - Garrus Vakarian is completing his trials for entrance into the Special Tactics and Reconnaissance branch under his mentors Saren Arterius and Nihlus Kryik. Soon a third mentor enters the game, not a Spectre and seemingly unbound by her own people's military doctrine. How will Vakarian deal with the trials and tribulations with a quirky, brash human adding to the mix?
1. Chapter 1

**Hope you all enjoy! This one will start out with a lot of Garrus' POV and will add POV later. **

* * *

Garrus Vakarian was about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime. He was no longer going to be bound by c-sec rules and regulations, no longer bound to worry about his actions and his desire to act being impeded by the very things he was seeking to protect.

Garrus Vakarian was about to start his final stage of becoming a Spectre; mentorship under a current spectre. In his case, spectres. He was going to be studying under Saren Arterius and Nihlus Kyrik, two well-known spectres who travelled and worked together out of the same ship.

Garrus was greeted at the ships docking bay by none other than Nihlus himself. Nihlus was a tall turian with a brownish-red skin hue. He had prominent and stark white facial markings that extended along his fringe. The spectre was obviously very relaxed as he leaned against the doorway and seemed to have nothing important to do other than just wait and watch the dock workers scurry about on their day-to-day tasks.

Garrus approached slowly, unsure of how he should greet his new mentor so he decided on a formal greeting and they could go from there.

"Spectre Kyrik, I am Officer Vakarian and I've been assigned to your tutelage, sir." He threw in a salute just to cover all of his bases. He stood there for a long while, waiting for Nihlus to respond. It took a great deal longer than he had anticipated and it seemed to Garrus that the other turian was trying not to laugh.

"Please, Vakarian, we aren't so formal on this ship… Well, I'm not. Saren hates being saluted and called 'sir', but the formal speech would probably tickle him something fierce – seeing as he gets none of it from me. You _can_ relax, can't you?" Garrus got the distinct feeling that Nihlus was trying not to laugh at him.

"Yes, Nihlus? I can do that, the non-formality that is. So where's my bunk? I can set down my bag and we can get started on all of this." Garrus was eager to get started, he wanted to prove himself – to himself and to his father. He wanted to show his father that spectres were more good than bad and that he would not be a "loose cannon".

Nihlus just chuckled and pointed with his thumb into the ship, "Down past the cockpit and CIC area. There's a galley and then our rooms are all situated around the galley, you can choose either of the ones on the left side – the three on the right are currently in use."

The three on the side? Garrus was under the impression that only Nihlus and Saren were aboard the small vessel. "Sir, I mean Nihlus, is there another passenger on the ship?" He felt that it was probably out of place to question something so trivial so early, but his curiosity was getting the better of him.

"No, not currently, but we like to keep it available should someone decide to join us occasionally." That was even a more cryptic answer than Garrus was desiring, but he was comforted that he wasn't going to have to be introduced to a third member of the crew, especially one who he was unprepared to meet. He had read the dossiers on Nihlus and Saren, he had a pretty good idea on what to expect from the two of them, but not a third.

Garrus nodded to Nihlus and entered the ship. True to what he had read, the ship wasn't really much. From the outside the ship looked large enough, but from the interior he figured that a good portion of the ships' size was due to cargo space. Even that couldn't be too large.

He walked through the CIC and peered around as many corners as he could on his way to the galley. One of the rooms off of the galley was a proper, if not small, medical bay. There were also showers in one of the rooms and then three other bedrooms – all on the left.

He briefly eyed the right side doors, there were four and three he knew were sleeping quarters… The fourth was probably a gun room as most ships of this design had one. He was tempted to poke around the other rooms, but decided that should probably be left until later, when he was more accustomed with the other spectres; he wouldn't want to get kicked out before they even left the Citadel.

After sizing up the almost identical rooms he chose the one on the furthest left, near one of the right side rooms (it was a circular galley, after all) and figuring that it would be good if all of the occupants were near each other. Besides, he could always switch to another room if he decided he wanted some space.

The room was larger than he was expecting – a benefit to a ship with little else in it. His bed was against the far wall and there was a gun-modification station and an armor rack. All in all a nice little setup. No windows, as to be expected, but he wasn't expecting a view.

Garrus quickly set down his rucksack and went back out into the galley. Nihlus was already waiting for him as was his second mentor, Saren.

Saren was more severe than Nihlus had been, but Garrus was prepared for that. The other turian was of a paler complexion and had no colony marking to speak off. A bare face, usually thought of as untrustworthy… But Garrus had promised himself he wouldn't let past bias rule him. Squaring off his shoulders, he approached the two men.

"Saren Arterius, I'm Garrus Vakarian. It is an honor and a privilege to be working with you sir." He stood tall in front of Saren, hoping for a good appraisal. He almost deflated when Nihlus commented, "I didn't even get the 'honor and privilege' speech! Look at you, Mr. Big and Known!" Garrus felt like he had already made a huge mistake in not addressing the Nihlus in the same fashion and was about to start backtracking when Nihlus raised his hand and started laughing.

"Vakarian, don't worry, I'm just fucking with you. Like I said, I don't give a shit if you're formal with me." Nihlus was still chuckling when Garrus realized Saren hadn't said anything yet. Garrus tried to relax while looking at the more viciously reputed spectre next to the jokester.

After another awkward and prolonged silence, Saren finally spoke. "Vakarian, Councilor Sparatus spoke highly of you, I hope he won't be disappointed. As it is, I will expect a lot from you and I'll tell you right now that I will not pity fools and if you drag us down I have no issues leaving you to the varren. With that said I've transferred some information to your private data terminal about our upcoming mission, brief yourself and meet with Nihlus first thing in the morning and we'll get started on evaluating your weapons and combat tactics. "

Garrus could only nod and agree with everything Saren said. He wasted no time going back to his room and planting himself at his terminal to read over the next missions' parameters. A slave trading sting, just up his alley. He settled himself in and prepared himself to show his best the next day.

* * *

The came upon the seemingly abandoned mine on some backwater planet. The outside air was breathable, barely. They wore combat helmets to keep their oxygen intakes at one-hundred percent, there was no point risking oxygen deprivation if they didn't have to.

They entered the facility under the cover of darkness, they were fortunate this planet didn't have an endless day cycle. The facility was completely dark from all of their exterior readings and Garrus was starting to wonder if this was all a waste of time. He was about to voice his suspicions when they heard voices and suddenly all of their readings were off the scales.

Fifty or Sixty people, probably a good ten of them were gang members. The spectres and their recruit were positioning themselves at strategic vantage points in the rafters in order to get a good view of the captured people, a mix of asari, salarian and humans, and the slavers were batarians, of course.

It was hard to get a lock on how many batarians there actually were, however. A couple seemed to be reporting back to a room that was out of Garrus line of sight and the com chatter between Saren and Nihlus let on that they didn't have a good view either.

Suddenly a subtle, but angry curse from Saren drew all of Garrus' attention. Saren seemed to pause for a moment and then continued to let out string after string of curses. Garrus was about to ask what they hell had happened when Nihlus beat him to it.

"Saren, what is it?" Nihlus asked in a rushed whisper. Saren answered, but it was above Garrus' current amount of understanding, "Isa is here! Damnit, that little pyjack shit is in with the slaves! Now I know why she didn't tell us what her mission was. Little fucking shit of a human!"

Human? Isa? Garrus scanned the slaves, specifically the human ones, to try and pinpoint who they were talking about. All of the humans looked pretty banged up and he couldn't really tell if any of them would be an acquaintance of Saren or Nihlus, not that he could really tell that from a single glimpse. Nihlus expounded on the information by adding, "My little raven haired princess is here?! Why would the Alliance send her here?"

Raven haired princess? Nihlus' undertones stated that he was mocking and also somewhat worried. So the human was at least somewhat important to his companions. Garrus doubled his efforts to figure out who the human was. She was a woman with dark hair, at least which was the synonym of "raven" that his visor was displaying.

Still, nothing. Finally he caught a woman looking up. She was unremarkable, as far as he could tell. Slender-ish, she was wearing a black top with no sleeves and a pair of… Jeans? He thought the leggings were called jeans. Not many humans wore them anymore, not unless they were exhibiting a certain style. Earth-style, was what he had heard it referred to. Her jeans were tight against her legs and even as a turian he could appreciate their shape.

He thought that for a human she was in really good shape, which if the batarians were really thinking they would have been wary of her from the get-go instead of housing her with the general population.

For some reason they were dividing the slaves into two different holding areas – probably based on expected revenue for their sales. Different auction houses and all of that. The woman raised her face towards Saren, uncannily directly looking at him. Garrus caught her close one of her eyes and twitch her head in a greeting. She had just winked at Saren Arterius.

Saren started cursing again and then finally informed the rest of the party as to what was going on, "She's up to something, stand down and move in a protective flank around her. I swear to the spirits I am going to beat the ever living shit out of her when I get my hands on her."

Garrus wanted to question why this human was so important, and more importantly, why they were jeopardizing their mission to protect and possibly save her. He wanted to ask a lot of questions, all of which had to wait until they were back on the ship. Hell he wanted to beat the human himself for being such a huge inconvenience.

As the group of slaves was being divided, one of the batarians zeroed in on "Isa" and separated her from the group. He checked her wrist bindings and then took her down the hallway that lead to the area out of sight. Saren took that as their first break.

"Ok, Isa will just have to take care of herself from there, lets save these hostages and we can work our way towards the back." Saren had to have a lot of confidence in this Isa woman to think that saving these slaves wouldn't hinder her too much. He had mentioned that she was of the human Alliance, so she was obviously military trained. Garrus wasn't quite settled with the idea of leaving her to her own devices, but she had done herself the disservice of not informing Saren or Nihlus that she was here.

On Saren's signal, they began sniping off the batarian guards one by one, luckily there were only eight or so left in the warehouse. The slaves didn't make so much as a peep as the guards started dropping dead and Garrus silently thanked all of the memos c-sec put out about how to react once caught by slavers. "Stay calm, don't scream, let yourself be saved" was always the gist of the bulletins.

They quickly moved down to the ground level and ordered all of the hostages to move towards the front of the building, they'd secure transport for them shortly. Their own ship couldn't house all of the people so a separate transport would have to be routed and was already standing by.

The three turians worked their way methodically down the hall, properly clearing rooms and checking every corner, nook and cranny. Two more guards killed while patrolling the hallways and an additional one before they came to what appeared to be the end of the road, so to speak.

They were about to enter with grand fan-fair, ie bullets and death, when they heard a muffled shout and noticed a blue hued glow coming from under the door frame.

Saren and Nihlus instantly straightened and simultaneously sighed with annoyance. "She just took all of the fun out of this." Nihlus complained as he moved casually to the door and proceeded to open it. Garrus was about to protest the lax behavior when he noticed what Nihlus and Saren had already anticipated.

The woman, Isa, was crouched over a batarian and was choking him… Violently. How could you make choking so violent that you felt the need to point out that an already violent act was indeed violent? Garrus didn't know, but the act was definitely punctuated by the subtle blue glow around her.

A human biotic, rare but not unheard of. Garrus looked around the room and noticed the furniture, and remaining two guards, were violently thrown from one central point – the woman. She was currently trying to kill what had to be the leader, judging by his clothes and the fact that this was apparently his office.

"I'll ask you one last time, where did you take the merchandise?!" She calmly, albeit angrily, asked the batarian. All he was able to mutter was a garbled "fuck you" before she squeezed hard enough to collapse his airway. She stood just as casually and held a hand out to Saren. "Your pistol, please." He dutifully ignored her request and just stared at her with his arms crossed over his chest. She huffed and then moved her hand towards Nihlus.

Nihlus laughed a bit and actually did hand over his pistol, which she used to splatter the batarian's skull over the carpet. She handed it back and smiled at the other two. "Thank you, great timing guys! I was wondering how I was going to get out of this without too many casualties, but you two have the best timing, as I've said before."

Garrus just let his jaw drop. She was talking like she knew them, and like she had half-planned this entire debacle. Nihlus just started laughing while Saren growled, "You little shit, I about had a heart attack when I saw you down there! You could have told me this was where the Alliance was sending you! Goddamn Corsairs think you're all indestructible! Nihlus about had an aneurism as well, you know. Spirits damn it I don't know why I agree to help you so much!" He was pointing by this point, and his mandibles were twitching angrily.

The human didn't even look phased. She just smiled softly and then patted Saren's arm. "I'm sorry." That was all she said, nothing else. Saren looked like he wanted to say more, but instead just sighed and pointed towards the exit. "Let's get out of here, by the way, this is our newest team member, Garrus Vakarian. He's being mentored for the spectres." Saren's change in attitude from angry to compliant was a surprise in and of itself, the fact that he described Garrus as a team member was also surprising.

Garrus was jolted out of all of his surprises by a small human hand jutting in his direction. "Commander Isabelle Shepard, pleasure Garrus Vakarian." He took the hand and mumbled out a response of some sort. He wasn't sure what to make of her, and quite frankly he was perplexed. She spoke familiarly with Nihlus and Saren and she seemed completed at ease with Garrus… If not a little flippant.

He followed the three back out of the warehouse and helped with loading up the rescues on to a shuttle destined for debriefs and probably therapy. The entire time Garrus kept an eye on the petite woman. She wasn't all that petite for a human, actually a bit on the tall side, but she was petite compared to her two… Or three, turian companions.

She was harsh with some of the rescues and shuttle team, and gentle with others, either way her orders were obeyed – eventually – and she seemed to have an air of authority around her. But then she would play with the kids and talk with some of the younger adolescents like she was one of them.

She seemed duplicitous and Garrus didn't like it.

Nihlus seemed to catch on to Garrus' train of thought and approached him after they had returned to their own ship. "She takes some getting used to, but she's a good kid. Little on the 'hell or high water' side of things, but good none the less."

Garrus didn't know what to make of Nihlus sticking up for the tiny human and his nerves were frayed from the day's trials. "Who is she to you? And to Saren? Why do you trust her so easily?" Nihlus seemed to step back and lean on to his hip while he considered his answer. "She's important to both Saren and I, for different reasons. The best explanation you're going to get is that she is a trusted friend to us both. We trust her because she's proven she can be trustworthy and the how's and why's are for a time when I know you better. Suffice it to say, she's going to be around occasionally as she uses this ship as her home in between missions and she has seniority on this ship over you. Bare that in mind when you talk to her."

Nihlus had started to walk away before he had even finished talking and had escorted himself right on to the bridge. Apparently their conversation was done and Garrus questioning the human was not really allowed. Garrus glared at the door the human had walked in to – the room next to his, before going to his own room to contemplate the day's turn of events and to clean and calibrate his gun.

Calibrations always soothed his mind.


	2. Chapter 2

**Sorry about the delay, I know there is a bit longer in between chapters than many are used to - finals week for both me and my lovely beta, icyfreezerpop!**

**Next chapter is already in the works so you may get two this week!**

**Enjoy and *shameless plug* please review :)**

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Garrus was getting used to the little human aboard the ship, though his discomfort had hardly lessened. He wasn't sure what it was about her, but she set his teeth on edge. He told himself that it was just because she seemed to be so damned curious about everything that was going on around her and he wasn't used to it. He wasn't used to humans.

If he was honest with himself, that wasn't it at all. He found himself dreaming about her frequently and that in and of itself was alarming. He didn't have a human fetish.

He had been trying for a few days to get information out of Nihlus and Saren about their backstory with Isa and, at first, they were less than accommodating his own curiosity. At least not in whole, entire sentences.

He was able to discern that she had been travelling and working with them off and on for about two or three years. He also picked up that they found her in a mess of trouble on some asteroid mining colony where the VI had gone rogue and was killing off people. It had taken all three of them to save the inhabitants and take down the VI. She had been travelling with them ever since – when her Alliance duties didn't require her elsewhere.

Garrus had been unaware that the Alliance had agents that operated much like Spectres. She was alone and given places, people and situations to investigate, and she checked in with her commanders regularly, but she wasn't necessarily part of any formed unit. She was an independent agent. Saren had said her "team" was the corsairs who were the Alliance's response to finding out about the Spectres. An imitation force, so to speak.

There was something more to her being on the ship, Garrus could feel it, but neither Saren nor Nihlus were really willing to elaborate on it. Hell, Garrus thought there was something more with Saren and Nihlus themselves but he didn't comment on that one in particular. It was in their conversations when they thought they were alone, or no one was watching. Isa acted differently around the two as well. Much of her interactions seemed forced.

It was a mystery, an unknown, and Garrus felt the twinge of obsession hitting him. He hated unknowns. He had always felt the need to sniff out every mystery and solve it. It was a part of his father in him. His father had been a C-sec man through and through and Garrus could only assume his need to solve such things was due to being raised by a detective.

Over the following weeks, they had a few more missions go well – sometimes Isa joined and sometimes she stayed behind. Garrus deduced that it was mostly based on whether a fourth was needed or not. He was the priority as far as mission training went and if there wasn't a need for a fourth then it was logical that she would sit out.

The longer Isa was on the ship the more Garrus noticed that, particularly between her and Saren, the tensions were higher. Saren snapped more and was in a generally fouler mood than normal at no one in particular and Nihlus' normally exuberant and sometimes inappropriate humor was more subdued.

The mystery grew. Why would one human effect the balance of the ship this much? Garrus had to admit that he was growing increasingly comfortable and, well, fond of the human. Fond as if she were a pet. Yeah, she was as lovable as a pet.

He tried to convince himself that was the extent of his affections. Either way, he found himself talking to her more than the other two members of their team. The ship was piloted by a VI so it wasn't like he had a whole lot of other people to talk to.

They would calibrate weapons and discuss combat tactics. They would argue over morality on the battlefield and galactic policies. She was set in her opinions and he hated to admit that some of hers were changing his own. She brought up things in ways he hadn't thought of before and it was uncomfortable. It was also rather eye-opening and he found himself respecting her as a military leader more and more.

Finally he got up the courage to ask her about the things that had been bothering him, both about her and about the influences on this ship.

"Why were you so… Different with the different hostages on that first mission? You would be kind and gentle with some and with others you were almost cruel."

She seemed taken aback by his question and then thought of her answer. It made him feel a bit foolish for worrying about something like that, but it wasn't the turian way and he wasn't used to anything else.

She chewed on her lip for a good minute before answering, "I guess that stems from what I saw as a fellow hostage and what you saw as a rescuer – also some people just need a swift kick in the ass where others need a gentler hand. The ones I was rough with were generally those who had made the entire hostage situation worse. They were the ones compounding the already hard situation by making sexual advances on the other hostages and maliciously causing issues to bring attention on to others. To compound all of that, they just weren't listening and it wasn't doing anyone any good. The ones I was gentle with, well… They were, in general, the most effected by the situation. They didn't need anyone yelling at them or ordering them around like they were cattle – not again. It would do me better to ask them nicely and to stand up for them so they were reminded that they had a voice. A lot of bad things happened to a lot of those people that were captured and it was a pretty, pardon the expression, dehumanizing experience for many involved. The batarians didn't care about using some of their stock prior to auction, if you get what I mean, and those not valued high were treated worse."

She stopped there, deigning not to add to her tale of woe. Garrus didn't really need any further explanation. It made sense and he was surprised he didn't think of it. None of his military leadership had ever thought that deeply in to a situation – even the ones who went undercover. Though he would admit that he had very few that did do undercover work. It was refreshing to see someone think of the angles in such a way.

She was certainly upfront with him and he felt encouraged by her candid answer so far, so he asked the question that was plaguing him more recently.

"Why do Saren and Nihlus act different around you?"

He caught how her cheeks flushed and she averted her gaze. He should have looked up human behaviors before this discussion because, although the reaction was interesting, he had no idea what it indicated.

She sighed after a long moment and looked off into the distance. Garrus had the distinct feeling that this was not an easy conversation for her. "I won't tell you the details, because they're not entirely mine to tell. The simple answer is that I made a misstep and it has caused for things to be tense between the three of us. It wasn't always this way… We used to be close." She looked down at her hands and sighed again before plastering on a forced smile and making eye contact with him. "It's my fault and I'm working hard to fix it. I'm sorry that I can't give you any details, the whole thing must seem rather oblique to you."

It's true that he wasn't really satisfied with the answer, but she had said that it wasn't entire her story to tell and that rang true with Garrus. Turians were fairly private and he could respect her not airing other people's secrets around. He also respected the fact that she was able to admit fault. From everything he had seen of humans, which admittedly wasn't much and was usually the worst the species had to offer, they were pretty self-centered and tended to pass the blame rather than accept what was rightfully theirs.

He would have to open his mind to the possibility that humans were as his father had portrayed and not as he had seen with the dregs of society he met on missions.

He nodded his acceptance of her answer and continued to work in companionable silence for the rest of the afternoon. She didn't make another attempt to open the lines of communication but he didn't feel any discomfort coming off of her. It was nice, calming and he felt himself really relax for the first time since he boarded this ship.

Garrus spent the next few days in a pleasant routine of activity. He would train hand to hand with Nihlus, calibrate and modify weapons with Isa, and sit in with Saren as he planned their next big mission. They would all meet for a tense dinner in the mess and then go their separate ways for the sleep cycle.

Garrus had issues sleeping that one and decided to give up on the prospect for the night, too many mod ideas for his sniper rifle floating around in his brain. He left his room to go to the kitchenette to pour himself a night-cap in the hopes that it would help him sleep.

He was in the kitchenette, he left the lights off as to not disturb anyone else and he was actively trying to be as quiet as possible when Nihlus' door opened. Garrus didn't think much of it until he saw that Nihlus was going to Saren's room. Still nothing too unusual. Saren opened and hushed words were exchanged. Garrus had a good vantage point from his place leaning against the counter and although he was too far away to hear what was being said, the tone suggested a mild argument.

Garrus wasn't normally one to eavesdrop, but found himself unable to get back to his room without drawing attention to himself. Eventually the arguing stopped and the two Spectres leaned towards one another… and touched foreheads. Garrus about spit his drink out at the sight. Sure, this situation wasn't unheard of within the turian military, but he had no indication that Saren and Nihlus were involved in such a way.

Quickly Saren had grabbed Nihlus and pulled him into his room, the door closing behind them. Garrus took the opportunity to quietly and hastily return to his room. He found himself sitting on his bed and thinking over his new tidbit of information. So Nihlus and Saren were romantically involved, no real big deal, but he kept going over what Isa had said. They all had been close… and they were all tense around each other.

Just what was the extent of their relationship before whatever happened had happened?

Garrus got a further glimpse into the intricacies of the trio's relationship after a mission gone wrong a few nights later. Isa had stayed behind and Garrus, Nihlus and Saren had gone in to investigate an ezo smuggling ring on a moon circling a small gas giant.

The smugglers had panicked and set the moon on a kamikaze trajectory straight into the planet. None of the turians could get to the thrusters in time to stop the impending collision and had to evacuate before the moon hit the planet.

Only the smugglers that couldn't get off in time were killed, and the planet was uninhabited. But the planet has been an ezo hotspot and the counsel was not pleased that it was lost. Uncharacteristically, Saren and Nihlus were handling the news rather poorly and had set up a makeshift bar on the table in the galley.

They were all drinking, everyone on the ship, and sharing war stories. It was a pleasant way to relax from the mission gone wrong and it all seemed to be good natured until a side comment from Nihlus had Saren revert back to the asshole he was legend for being.

"Yeah, we all know Isa puts asari flexibility to shame, remember that one time we were stuck in the ducts and she had to wiggle her way around to get to the furnace controls so we wouldn't cook?" Nihlus had said, it seemed innocent and innocuous, but Saren hadn't taken it so easily.

"You would know best about Isabelle's flexibility, wouldn't you? She's also a sneaky one. Don't forget that; she gets behind you before you even know she's moving!"

The conversation didn't take long, but the mood had changed considerably. Isa's face had blanched and Nihlus looked about as downtrodden as a child who just got scolded. Saren just sat back and continued to drink as if he hadn't said a thing. Garrus was confused beyond measure at the change in atmosphere and it wasn't until Nihlus finally said something that Garrus finally understood the reason behind all of the tension.

"Saren, that's unfair. Isa had no idea that we had committed. She was involved up until that point and I hadn't had a chance to tell her yet. You hadn't told her yet either. You can't pretend you didn't know, spirits the three of us were…"

"Enough!" Saren bellowed before Nihlus could finish his defense of the unusually quiet human, "She's just a human! She should know her place, she should have known, a turian would have known!" The alcohol was spilling off of Saren's breath and he wouldn't normally have been so verbose over the issue. Nihlus just looked horrified as Isa excused herself from the table.

Garrus could tell that Saren seemed to instantly regret his words and Nihlus looked like he wanted to go after her. Hell, Garrus wanted to go to her and make sure she was alright. As it was, none of them did. Nihlus excused himself shortly after and Saren grabbed a bottle and stormed off to his own room.

Garrus followed suit after Saren left and found himself at his modification bench thinking over what he had just learned. So Saren, Nihlus and Isa had been involved together. What must have happened is that Nihlus and Saren had agreed to make their own relationship more serious and that left Isa out of the picture – only no one told her. Generally, it was fairly obvious to turians when they got involved in serious relationships. Marking, pheromones, etc. would indicate that the person was in a committed relationship; all of these things would mean nothing to a human, hell they couldn't even scent the pheromones!

Garrus found himself feeling sorry for Isa. She genuinely seemed upset over the rift that developed and he couldn't find himself blaming her what-so-ever. He thought he would be more disturbed about finding out how involved she was with Saren and Nihlus, but he wasn't. He just felt sorry for her.

He wondered if she would act strangely around him now that he knew? She wasn't one to worry too much about her personal life being secret, but she might worry that he would think less of her. Well he didn't and he wouldn't let her think that he had. He would just have to show her that he respected her just as much.

The next morning was equally awkward. Isa didn't come out of her room and Saren seemed hellbent on pretending like the whole thing didn't happen. They went out on their mission like normal, another successful one, and then were recalled back to the Citadel for ship retrofits.

Nihlus had tried to coax Isa out of her room to no real success and Saren eventually tried the same. Saren even apologized… Kind of. He said he shouldn't have brought up his grievances in such a way. Grievances Garrus didn't feel he had a right to feel.

It disturbed Garrus that he was so defensive of Isa after a short while, but she had grown on him and he respected her greatly as a professional. He felt like she got the proverbial "short end of the stick" in regards to the end of her dual relationship with Saren and Nihlus.

He found himself constantly talking to her closed door when no one else was around, discussing mods he wanted to do to his gun and musing over missions that they were going on while they were on their way to the Citadel. It was oddly comforting to him to just be talking and knowing she could hear. She never responded, but he hoped that the message was getting to her – that he didn't think any differently of her and that he was here if she wanted to talk.

The night before they got to the Citadel she surprised him. He was sitting down to start his ritual recap of the day when her door opened. She wasn't immediately behind it, but he rushed at the opportunity to actually see her.

He didn't realize how desperate he had been to actually lay his eyes on her because he felt like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders the moment he saw her. She was standing next to her bed looking anxious and awkward. It was strangely cute and he walked up as close to her as he felt she would be comfortable with.

"Are you ok?" It was the least of what he wanted to ask, but it would do for an icebreaker.

She nodded a little too quickly and smiled, another false smile, "Yeah. I'm sorry you had to see that, I know it doesn't paint me in a positive light and I'm sorry for that…" She looked like she was going to continue on with the explanation when he placed his hand on her shoulder and stopped her.

"You don't have to explain, and I don't think any less of you. I still respect you Isa, I'm still your friend." Somehow that didn't seem to cover what he was trying to say, but it would have to do. He didn't know how else to say it in its' full capacity.

She finally made eye contact with him and his heart nearly stopped. She smiled. A full, gloriously genuine smile. He didn't have a lot of time to analyze his reaction to such a simple gesture because she quickly hugged him – their first real physical contact. She quickly ended the contact and he felt a little bereft for it. She started talking about his mods he had been talking about and mentioned someplace he should see on the Citadel, he didn't really hear any of it. His mind was in complete chaos. Why was she effecting him so much?

He muttered some pleasantries and excused himself to bed, he wasn't even sure if she had finished talking. He needed to sort all of this emotion out and, although he felt bad for abruptly ending their minor reunion, he needed to do so alone.

Had he not been in his own emotional world he probably would have noticed that his abrupt exit from her room had left an impression of rejection, he hadn't meant to seem like he was rejecting her.

The next day the ship arrived at the Citadel. Saren and Nihlus had requested Garrus go with them to a council meeting and Garrus was more than excited to attend with them. Even though he was a Spectre candidate, he had never been allowed to see a meeting in session live. It was a privilege.

Oddly, Saren was acting more paranoid than normal and had demanded to the VI that no one else be allowed off the ship. Was he thinking that Isa would leave? He was mad at the human, why would he care if she left? Garrus cared, but he still hadn't pinpointed why or to what extent even though he thought about it all night, but why would Saren go through this much trouble?

Some of Garrus' confusion must have become apparent on his face because Nihlus walked out of ear shot with Garrus while Saren finalized some of the retrofit orders and made a supply order to be delivered while their gone.

"He may be mad at her, but he still wants to make things right – eventually. We know her, the moment she gets an opportunity she'll leave… It happened last time… After the fall out. It took her months to come back and more months for us to get to any semblance of normal. After this he's scared she'll run again." Nihlus looked sad but accepting of the prospect. Like he fully expected her to run as well, and that he didn't blame her.

Garrus sighed and looked back at Saren as he spoke, "If he cares so much, why doesn't he talk it out with her. I'll be honest, I don't think he has any right to be this upset with her. There is no way she could know that the two of you… You know, and if she was used to be a part of everything than of course she would act as if anything hadn't changed."

Nihlus looked surprised at Garrus' knowledge of the situation, "You certainly are well informed." Garrus had the good sense to look a little sheepish, "I saw you go in to Saren's room one night and I tried to ask Isa why you two were tense around her. She didn't tell me anything other than it was her fault, but after the other night, I put it all together."

Nihlus nodded and sighed, "I suppose it doesn't matter much that you know. She shouldn't blame herself so much, but that's just her… You care about her, don't you?" Nihlus eyed Garrus suspiciously for a second.

"Uh… I… Uh, I do… I don't know how much. Erm that came out wrong…" Garrus was trying to fumble with how to communicate feelings he didn't entirely have a grasp of yet. Nihlus just chuckled and patted Garrus' shoulder.

"Don't worry too much about it. Neither Saren nor I were ever in love with her, though we do regard her with a special affection." Garrus eyed Nihlus with speculation at that and Nihlus snorted, "Yes, even he still does. I think that's why he took her unintentional slight so personal. It's why he doesn't want her running off before we can work all of this out. Either way, if you're going to be romantic with her, please be careful. She cares more than she tends to let on and if she's going to let you in it's not a small thing. She doesn't trust, really trust, easily."

Garrus could only nod at what his mentor was saying. He wasn't sure that he wanted to be romantic with the human, but it was nice to know that he wouldn't be ostracized for it if he did start something up.

Saren had finished his business with the retrofitters and delivery personnel and approached the other two, directing them to follow them. Garrus gave one last apprehensive look at the ship, silently wishing that Isa would stay aboard and not run, though he wondered if she could even if she wanted to with the lockdowns Saren had on the ship.

Hours later the trio returned to the ship. The meeting with the council had been productive and they had a new list of missions ahead of them. The excursion had distracted the three men from the hurt feelings they had left on the ship… A fact they were abruptly reminded of when they noticed a kicked out side panel near the docking port of the ship.

Isa had found her way off of the ship, through the electrical duct. Garrus absently thought in stunned silence that it was a good thing that they were in for repairs and retrofitting since she probably wasn't caring much for not causing damage. Like a caged varren, don't get mad when they destroy the cage trying to get out.

Saren was furious and Nihlus looked beside himself. Garrus was just… Sad. He wondered if he would see her again and was relieved to hear Saren mutter that they had to find her. Garrus had thought that she would stay, if not for them then for him. He was a little put off that she didn't and felt like finding her just in order to simultaneously turn her over his knee for leaving and hug her to encourage her to stay.

Damned human was going to give him an aneurism.


	3. Chapter 3

**Another one for you my lovelies! Now if you're confused about some (one) character in this chapter, I left a little explanation at the bottom. **

**As always, enjoy!**

* * *

Isabelle wasted no time securing a way off of the Citadel for herself. She was done with this. Done with turians and their unspoken rules and covenants.

She dressed as plainly as possible, chartering a ride to the fifth fleet. She was under Admiral Hackett's command and she could request a personal corvette class ship of her own to operate out of. Working with Saren and Nihlus had started as a convenience, quickly turned to an emotional requirement and then soured to… Well, what it was now.

She wished she had the olfactory ability to determine the pheromone scents that turians put off to indicate certain levels of relationships, if she had she might not of have fucked up the friendship she had developed.

Then she seemingly fucked up the one with Vakarian by invading his personal space. She wasn't waiting around for the fall out of that misstep.

Why did humans have to do all of the research? She was expected to have all of this interspecies knowledge while her own people's customs and behaviors were left out of the sphere of what's important.

It didn't matter now. She was going to go her own way for a while. Maybe their paths would cross again, but she would try to be as impartial as possible.

Shit, this hurt.

It took a few days to get to the fifth fleet, still parked around Pluto. She took some time to move in to her newly assigned room. It was smaller than the one she had on Saren's ship… It lacked the large bed and personal touches she had added, like painting her walls with murals. This was a military bunk, she was just lucky to have a private one.

She wouldn't vocalize her disappointment, it was what she had expected, but she couldn't help comparing the two. She felt off kilter, sideways. Like this was some bad dream.

She inhaled a deep breath and stood tall. Enough self-pity for one day, or a few. She was a soldier! A damn good soldier. She didn't let personal feelings effect the mission and she needed the mission now.

Without allowing herself much time to get settled, she requested a meeting with Admiral Hackett and went to retrieve her newest assignment.

* * *

Garrus, Saren and Nihlus had engrossed themselves in missions after leaving the Citadel. It turned out that Isa's quick thinking had removed her from their grasp rather quickly. Hours before they had even discovered her missing, she was off the Citadel and headed to her home system of Sol.

They debated following her, but unanimously agreed that nothing would really come of it. It's not like they could storm an Alliance armada and take her back. Well, the spectres could, but they wouldn't abuse their authority like that.

Garrus was more disheartened than either Saren or Nihlus, which he took a few days to sort out why. She was a friend of his, a friend whose importance was quickly growing the more time he spent around her. He was thrust into a new situation with few people to truly confide in and he had found her.

They were friends, or so he had thought. He was angry that she had left. He was angry that he had lost a friend.

Nihlus had tried to get him to talk about it a few times, unsuccessfully. Garrus wasn't in the mood and he found he couldn't have a conversation about her that didn't dissolve in to him complaining about her leaving.

Nihlus seemed to think the entire thing absolutely hilarious as he would chuckle every time Garrus' composure left him. Eventually, Garrus inquired as to what was so hilarious in a less than appropriate manner. "Why the fuck do you laugh every time we talk about her. Spirits she infuriates me!"

Nihlus merely chuckled again, ignoring the fact that Garrus had been so rude, "You're in love with her."

That was it, no other explanation and certainly no information to back up that claim! Garrus immediately opened his mouth to argue. He was not in love with the human. He couldn't be! She was just a little pyjack who left for no reason when things got difficult. Just because he missed the shit out of her meant nothing.

The fact that he would find himself in her room just sitting on her bed, staring at the murals she had painted on the walls. Pictures of red, gold, white and green, pictures that calmed him. Just because the entire room smelled of her and it allowed him to stop being angry for a few moments, only to rile him up again at the fact that he was even in her room.

Spirits damn him, he was in love with her.

He just looked at Nihlus with the most helpless expression he had ever owned. He didn't know what to do and the infuriating turian wasn't helping. Nihlus just chuckled again and then patted Garrus' shoulder as he moved to leave the room. Garrus dropped his head in to his hands.

* * *

Isa had gone on many missions on her own throughout her career and was now given control of a small corvette class ship, the "Wolverine" – a title she especially enjoyed, to use at her leisure. The only problem was that she didn't often… Well, leisure. She took it out for missions and then returned to command to train.

Her brother, Major John Shepard, was concerned for her if his message tones were anything to go by. He had command of the famed Normandy SR-1. Lucky ass got command of the joint turian-human prototype ship that everyone was drooling over. Everyone who was allowed to know about it, that is.

He was trying to get her to join his command. Her role within the military was fluid enough that she could operate out of anywhere… But, she wasn't sure she wanted to deal with her big brother as her commanding officer.

He was a bit of an asshole and while she was well-loved as his little sister, she didn't much care for his command style. Renegade is what most referred to him as and she would be hard pressed to argue against the title.

She reassured him as much as possible and let him stew in his sister-worry-overbearing-brother way. He hated that she became a corsair and she hated that she was sent by herself on a lot of missions that normally would call for a team.

She was just that good, she told herself often. Though, she wasn't entirely sure she wasn't blowing steam up her own ass. She knew that she wasn't infallible but it didn't do to second guess yourself with a job like hers. Believe you can do it or don't even try is what her mentor, Jack Harper, used to say.

She hadn't seen or thought of Jack in a while and absently wondered what was going on with him. Whenever she inquired about him to Admiral Hackett she was redirected on to a mission or something. Probably on some super-secret squirrely mission and no one was allowed to talk about it. She could respect that.

Her omni-tool let out a chime to inform her she had a new message. It was from Hackett, a new mission.  
She read over the mission parameters and shrugged to herself before heading down to her ship. Seemed easy enough; investigate an asteroid scientific research colony gone dark. She could do that, probably pirates or something.

A few days later, Isa was looking for the asteroid in the Asgard system. She found the asteroid a few days away from the planet Terra Nova and according to her computer it was on a collision trajectory. That wouldn't do, there was a thriving colony on Terra Nova. Isa scanned the asteroid and set a course for her to land a good ways away from the active research stations – she would have to disable the thrusters before entering the main facility.

Isa had set down with little issue and had even been able to disable the satellite thrusters without much resistance. She even had a little helper on the inside directing her where to go. Apparently batarian extremists had decided to "make an example" of the colony. Not if she had anything to say about it.

Isa was busy sneaking in to the main facility to take down the batarian leader, he had already killed some of the scientists to try and dissuade her. As much as she hated to lose people, it was better the few people on this asteroid versus an entire colony – a large colony if her memory served her well.  
Isa was doing well sneaking her way to where she had pinpointed the leader of this farce of a tactical team until she found herself pinned.

Maybe not so much of a farce team… Isa managed to snake her way around the center of the large room. It reminded her of a mall, random stairs to different levels and rooms dispersed around randomly, she guessed this was a central chamber of the facility – the place everyone had to go through to get to other parts of the building.

Whatever it was, it was a pain in the ass. Isa found her shields quickly drained as she made her last attempt to get into the ventilation ducts. She had been shot a few times and in critical areas. She felt the distinct twinge of wounds on her shoulder, hip, waist, leg and below her ribs. She was lucky they didn't hit any critical organs, but she would bleed out eventually. She was an infiltrator, she didn't carry enough medigel for injuries of this extent.

How the extremists had managed to hit all of her armor's weak spots was a mystery. Isa guessed it was dumb luck with the amount of people firing on her. Some of them must have been in an adjacent chamber that hadn't shown on her scanners because she hadn't picked up that many heat signatures.

As Isa crawled her way through the vents, heading towards what she thought was the medical facility, she mused on her predicament.

She was about five days away from the Citadel and six days from the Admiral's fleet. Even if she managed to kill the leader, there was no guarantee she would survive, or that the rest of his outfit would leave and not try to end her on principle.

Isa managed to climb through the long expansive vent to her goal without much incidence. Hell, the batarians would have to really be looking for her blood smears to pinpoint where she went and from the com chatter she overheard (voices travel so easily through vents) they had no idea where she was. That being said, she wasn't in any condition to just flop out of the vent and be able to defend herself. She felt the signature cold of blood loss set in and realized that no amount of medigel application would save her – it would only slow the inevitable.

She made a snap decision to stay in the vent, and she backed up a bit so if her breathing became labored no one would hear her, and decided to scan for help.

Her first thought was to ping the Normandy and see where it was currently skulking around. Two days out, she could probably make that if she went light to moderate on her medigel reserves, but it would be close, very close. She sighed and pinged Saren's ship – a name she could never pronounce to save her life.

One day out. Damnit, looked like she was going to extend another olive branch to her old friends. She would send a message to John as well in case Saren and Nihlus weren't feeling very accommodating. Just for emphasis, she activated her medical warning beacon that Saren had installed in her omni-tool to transmit her vitals to his omni-tool. It was encoded so she wasn't worried about the batarians picking up on the signal. It would take them too long to decode it and figure out that they may have won.

In her S.O.S., she included the details on how many batarians there were and where the prisoners were being kept according to her insider. She groaned quietly once more before sending the message.

No matter which one came to her rescue, she was going to have to deal with the almost equally awkward and uncomfortable situations that followed each group. Overbearing brother who would use this as an "I told you so", or her former dual-lovers who battled over whether she over-stepped her boundaries and caused them strife.

Maybe it would be better to just bleed out, her pride couldn't handle much more battering.

* * *

The alarm for a priority message rang through the ship and all three turians quickly moved themselves to the bridge. Saren noticed first who it was from and his subvocals trilled in distress as he looked at Nihlus.

"She would normally be away longer than this, she must really be in trouble." Nihlus answered the question that Saren didn't ask. Garrus quickly looked past the two to the screen to read the message, his own subvocals giving away his fear for Isa.

Saren quickly uploaded Isa's vitals that she had conveniently added with the message. He only took a second to glance over the data before abruptly ordering the ship to go to the coordinates provided, at top speed.

Garrus had only really seen Saren be angry, curt, and violent. He had seen glimpses of the man behind the Spectre; when he had glimpsed Saren and Nihlus together and the one night when he had snapped at Isa before she left, but Garrus never associated those other personalities with the more common one he worked with. Sure, they were aspects of his personality, but they weren't the Saren he got to work with.

The Saren before him was one of fear. Not for himself, but for the human. The human he had been mad at, held a grudge against, but still worried for. Garrus finally understood what Nihlus had meant when he had said that Saren still cared for Isa. He was seeing it now.

Garrus left the two on the bridge to read over the message in private and to prep his gear. Saren hadn't bothered to make the message private so Garrus took advantage of it. She was trapped on an asteroid in Asgard, had gone in solo as a recon mission that turned rescue. Batarian extremists, got overwhelmed, estimated numbers over twenty – Spirits, twenty versus one! No wonder she had gotten clipped.

No, clipped wasn't the right term. Judging from her medical readout she would be lucky if she wasn't already bled out by the time they showed up and they were less than twenty-four hours out.

He was on edge the entire twenty-something hours. He had forgotten how many and hadn't really started paying attention until the last two. Two hours that went by slower than mud. He had been primed and ready to go long before they landed and Saren and Nihlus seemed just as anxious.

Thanks to Isa's intelligence, they were able to divide and concur their opponents, dispatching the leader without much issue… However he blew up his hostages before his death. Garrus knew he should care that they just lost the hostages, but he didn't. They were too busy scanning the ventilation system for Isa.

Her signal was strongest near the medical facility, but still a ways back from the grate. Nihlus, being the slimmest, went in the vent after her. He emerged a short time later dragging a limp body. He set her on one of the beds and checked her vitals – still alive, but barely. They needed to get her medical attention as soon as possible and luckily they were a short ways away from a large human colony. The colony was apparently the main target of the batarians. Well now it could pay her back for her sacrifice trying to save them. Hell, she had saved them. The batarians hadn't restarted the thrusters yet thanks to her sabotage.

The three of them applied more medigel to her wounds and Nihlus let Garrus pick her up to start on their evacuation. They were moving as fast as possible without jarring her too much. Even unconscious she would moan and groan if she was jostled too much, probably due to the pain.

They were still a few clicks away from their ship when a shuttle maneuvered to land near them. Saren and Nihlus set up a defensive perimeter while Garrus got behind some cover with Isa. Damnit, they couldn't catch a break.

A human exited the ship, he was flanked by two other humans, a man and woman. Both instantly raised their weapons when they saw Nihlus and Saren, but the human in the middle – the leader, signaled for them to lower their weapons.

"My name is Jack Harper, I am here for Isabelle Shepard. I am from the Alliance and I am here to retrieve her, she didn't check in." The man was lying, about something. What, Garrus couldn't tell. Something about the human really set his teeth on edge and he was less than thrilled at the idea of handing Isa over to him.

"I know who you are!" Saren snapped as he signaled Nihlus to stand down. "Jack Harper, you were under General Williams' command on Shanxi. I know you're Alliance and that's about the only thing saving your ass from my boot right now." Saren signaled for Garrus to come out of cover… An order Garrus reluctantly complied with.

"She's badly injured, she sent us and SOS for help a day ago. She's been shot four times that we could count and has been bleeding steadily for at least twenty-four hours. We applied medigel, but I am no expert on human medical care."

Garrus trudged up to the human and handed Isa off to him. The way the human looked at her made him more uncomfortable giving her into his care. He had these synthetic blue eyes that seemed to focus on Isa and nothing else. Not in a romantic way, but critically. Like she as a find on an expedition.

He stood there for far longer than would be considered acceptable and polite before Saren called him back. He was unwilling to leave her in these people's care. The only reason he didn't snatch her right back and fight for her with his life was because they would know how to help her and she didn't have a lot of time.

He simply muttered a sincere, "Take care of her" before he turned and went back to Saren's side. The man, Jack, didn't say anything but simply smirked at Garrus before turning and marching back on to his shuttle with his henchmen.

All three watched the shuttle leave the asteroid and go off into the void of space.

"Do you really think that was a good idea, trusting her with him?" Garrus asked. It was unlike him to question an order in such a way, but this really didn't sit right with him. Saren's head snapped around and he glared at Garrus for a moment before answering. "No. But she needed medical attention faster than we could get it to her, and his ship would have the capabilities and staff to give her the immediate care."

As Saren was speaking he composed a message on his omni-tool. Both Nihlus and Garrus were obviously curious as to what he was composing, but chose to sit quietly until he was finished before finally inquiring. To Garrus' relief Nihlus asked first.

"What was that, Saren?" They followed Saren as he started back to his ship, answering on the way. "I sent a message to Major Shepard and Admiral Hackett. If Jack Harper is who they want her with, then they will be pleased to know that she was alive at the point of hand off. If not…", he paused ,"I would only trust Major Shepard to inform us that we had just handed his little sister off to a rogue agent."

So, Isa had an older brother who was also Alliance. Interesting, to say the least. Garrus filed that tid-bit away for later and thought over what it was about the human Jack Harper what about him had set Garrus so much on edge. He hadn't said or done anything that was suspicious, but Garrus' gut was telling him that they had just made a huge mistake.

Within minutes and before they had reached their ship a return message had been received from both Hackett and Shepard. Hackett sent his thanks and appreciation, confirming that it was the right thing to do… Shepard had a bunch of expletives, a thank you, and agreeing with Saren that while it was the right thing to do, he didn't like it either.

All three of them entered their ship wondering if they had just made a huge mistake, the expressions on their faces uniform in worry and discomfort.

Saren instantly set the ship to follow Harper's ship, he had half a mind to attack the ship and bring Isa back. Before they got too close, however, Harper's ship disappeared from their sensors.

It was at that moment that they realized that this unease was probably going to evolve into full-blown regret. They looked at each other in companionable silence, each harboring ill emotions about this entire situation.

* * *

"Isabelle Shepard has the perfect genetic makeup for modifications. Unlike Leng, she wouldn't need any external modifications, just some muscle and bone weaves and some new eyes. I'm thinking a nice blue." Jack Harper relayed to Admiral Hackett as he looked upon his unconscious protégé. She was always such a good soldier, a gymnast and an artist. She would be even more magnificent with some enhancements.

He would also have to up her biotic amp. She was strong for a human, but he could make her rival an asari matriarch. She would be his masterpiece. Ever since he had taken control of the unnamed corsair faction that dealt with the dirty side of galactic peace, assassinations and sabotage, he had dreamt of having a perfect specimen for his assistant, Miranda Lawson, to operate on.

She was a genius at human advancement modifications. She had made Kai Leng a virtual killing machine and she could do the same with Isabelle. She would be his best creation. Hackett would, of course, want her for his personal guard, but Harper had other ideas for his student. She would be the key to humanity finally taking its' place amongst the leaders of the galactic community. She would be his most deadly pawn.

* * *

**For those of you who haven't read the comics, Jack Harper is what the Illusive Man went by during the First Contact Wars. **


	4. Chapter 4

**With the outage yesterday I have another chapter all ready to go for you! I hope you enjoy! **

* * *

The surgeries were a success and the bone and skin weaves were taking to her body nicely. Jack had also had ocular implants installed – blue, like he had said. Something to offset the lovely brown/green of her eyes. Her biotic amplifier had also been upgraded. He was itching to get her combat tested, but knew from personal experience that she needed some time to let her body heal.

She would most likely get headaches from the ocular implants, something he had personal experience in as well. He had elected to forgo putting in the same implants he had. She was an infiltrator and a sniper, the readouts that would cross her vision would likely distract her from her accuracy while shooting and would prolong her downtime.

Instead, her implants would simply increase her night vision allowing her to no longer need a light in dark places. They would also allow her to see at greater distances – like a hawk, he had internally mused when he had been given the available implant options in the first place.

Her implants would be subtle, the ocular implants being the only noticeable change. He wondered if her brother and turian companions would be able to deal with the differences.

He had sneered at her choice of travelling companions. Turians, disgusting bird-dinosaurs. He couldn't expect the new human generation to truly understand their depraved ways, but Jack understood. He had fought against Saren and his brother, Desolace, in the First Contact War. He had seen turian brutality firsthand.

He had greater hopes for his protégé. He would guide her again to see the right way, the only way, for humans to gain dominance in the universe.

That isn't to say that Jack Harper was a complete xenophobe. He had enjoyed asari pleasures from time to time, he saw them as more equals than adversaries. But turians, batarians, elcor, volus, drell, quarians and especially the hanar had no place in the upper echelons of galactic politics. They were all primitive, much like the krogan and the vorcha.

No, he would guide Isabelle to the proper way of thinking and hopefully get to see that turian who had told him to take care of her suffer for his untoward affections. She was a killing machine, she needed no emotions. Whatever emotions she sparked from the young turian would quickly become his downfall.

He stroked his hand over Isabelle's head and smiled to himself. Yes, she would be the perfect weapon.

* * *

Isabelle woke in stages, first being aware that was safe and alive, then gradually that she was both warm and cold at the same time… Cold room, warm blanket. Well that was an encouraging realization and she went to move some limbs to test functionality – a survival trait she picked up in N7 training; always make sure you can move before you draw mass attention to yourself.

It was then that she realized that she hurt everywhere. God it felt like she had tried to run 20 miles with a 50lbs pack on her back. Then other realizations came to her… It was dark and she could see perfectly, and boy, did seeing perfectly cause her to get an instant migraine.

Eventually she managed to force herself to sit up, a grueling task in and of itself. As she did she noticed a mirror immediately to her left and turned to get a good look at the damage done to herself. First, she looked over her torso and what limbs she could see out of the blanket. Everything looked fine, well, fine enough of the surface. It wasn't until she actually looked herself in her reflections eye that she started to internally panic.

Her eyes were glowing! Why the fuck were her eyes glowing!?

Rationale left her at that moment and she made to move off of the bed. Her inability to move fluidly like she was used to caused her movements to be jerky and clumsy, catching her off guard and causing her to fall back into a tray of medical supplies.

So much for being a sneaky master of subterfuge.

The more she tried to move the angrier she got, who the hell took so many liberties with her body!? Who the hell and what the hell did they do to her? Obviously she had some ocular upgrades, upgrades she wasn't even sure were on the market yet. Untested tech, she had untested tech installed in her!

She was trying to make it to the door when it preemptively opened, far sooner than it should have since she was too far away to trigger the sensor. She tried to dive for cover but instead ended up belly flopping on the ground.

This was probably the most embarrassing escape attempt ever.

She didn't even look at who had triggered the door, she was too busy trying to just fucking move in a coordinated fashion.

It wasn't until a hand touched her shoulder that she yelled at moved to strike the person. A failed strike as her fist was caught mid-air. It took her a few moments to push through the angry haze to see a familiar face staring back at her. Jack, Jack Harper.

"W-why?" Was all she could think to ask; she had trusted him, why did he do this to her. Or better yet, why was he allowing this to be done to her?

He just smiled in that sickeningly calm way that she always hated and moved to pick her up. Not help her up, but bodily hoist her up and move her back to the bed. She was indignant but also aware that this would be faster than trying to force her legs to cooperate with walking.

"You've been upgraded. Thanks to your turian friends for saving you from those batarians and rightfully transferring you in to my care, I have been authorized by Admiral Hackett to improve upon your already exemplary physical capabilities. You have a bone weave, skin weave and a biotic amplifier upgrade. Oh, and we upgraded your eyes with ocular implants. It'll take you a few days to get used to everything and then we will be testing you in combat. You've been transferred to my team."

He was so damned proud of himself that she couldn't get past the fact that he was acting like he had done her a favor. Like he had changed her from her to a half synthetic beast for her benefit!

Well, to be fair the weaves didn't make her half synthetic, but she definitely felt less than human than she liked. After her shock wore off, the beta attitude she had adapted quickly dissipated as well.

"Who the fuck gave you the right to do this to me!? I don't want all of this shit, undo it. Undo it all and transfer me to another command, Jack! I don't want to be some synthetic machine!"

He looked appropriately dismayed by her reaction but his reaction was less than pleasing. "You will deal with it Isabelle. The changes are permanent and so is your appointment to my team. I will disregard this reaction as simply the anesthesia fogging your brain. We'll try this again tomorrow."

With that, he left the room and a stunned Isabelle. She was tempted to cry at that point, the helpless feeling overwhelming her to the point where she felt the need to reach out to Garrus. She had swiped his omni-tool ID number before she had left their ship and had just not bothered to use it before now.

To be fair, she was avoiding him and now that he, Saren and Nihlus had rescued her, she felt it was OK to reach out to them again.

She went to activate her omni-tool only to realize that Jack had it disabled. She was effectively alone…

She did cry then. Silently into her pillow so that no one could hear her. All she wanted was someone to talk to…

* * *

Saren and Nihlus had been on edge, researching everything they could about Jack Harper and his activities post First Contact War. Garrus had been trying to get ahold of Isa for days after wrangling her omni-tool code out of Saren – something he should have done already but had simply forgotten the easiest way to contact the woman.

The trio had discovered some not-so pleasant facts about the man known as Jack Harper. He had initially disappeared from all correspondence and record for a few years following the war, but had reemerged amidst a rather bloody attack on a turian colony outlying turian space.

He had a nasty habit of showing up or being mentioned in a lot of questionable situations since. He was there when a batarian colony in the Traverse was found massacred and had been mentioned in relation to a few high-profile deaths in both the hanar and salarian governments.

None of what the found bode well for Isa. Saren had used some of his contacts to dig deeper in to the citadel files on Jack Harper, while Nihlus used his contacts within the Alliance. All that could really be garnered was that he was affiliated with the Alliance, but not part of any known faction. He operated under their jurisdiction but with enough clout that they could deny any involvement.

Nihlus forwarded their findings to Major Shepard and within a few days they were all to meet – out of Citadel space and away from their respective commands. They weren't sure how much power Jack Harper had, but they weren't going to take any chances of their meeting getting back to him.

They docked ships and, in a show of good faith, Shepard boarded Saren's Ntalyraiea. It was tense at first, Garrus could see the relation between the siblings. Where Isa was tall for a human, her brother was taller. He was of a stockier build, not uncommon between the human sexes, but also had lighter hair and blue eyes. Garrus distinctly remembered Isa's being a lovely brown with green flecks.

Their skin tone, however, was identical. Not pasty and fair like many humans in space, but a nice soft tan color. Garrus made a note to do research on human skin tones and if it actually meant something or if it was merely decorative like with the asari.

John Shepard was a hard man, by all accounts. He had unwavering loyalty, not only amongst his crew, but also with the Citadel counsel. He got things done, but not always with diplomacy in mind. He was also up and coming as a spectre candidate, according to the rumors.

Garrus wasn't sure how to feel about the sibling of the woman he was finally admitting to himself that he loved. He admired the way Shepard didn't back down or seem squeamish around turians, specifically Saren. But he also felt that the "devil may care" attitude might get people hurt – something he had started worrying about after his long talks with Isa.

They met and situated themselves at the large round table in the galley and began to compare notes. Shepard was the first to bring up some disturbing news.

"Harper doesn't officially have a command, or I should say his command has no name. They're completely black and under the radar. He reports to only Admiral Hackett. Isabelle's official posting has gone off the record so I can only assume that Hackett has assigned her under him."

They all let that sink it a bit before Saren scoffed and cursed, "Shit, so that means she's his, as far as the Alliance is concerned. I thought she didn't have to be a part of a command if she didn't want to be, it was one of the perks of her position?"

Shepard nodded, "Technically, yes. But if Hackett wants her with Harper, then there really isn't anything she can do about it. It would be an assignment and she would be considered in breach of command. That's not even the most disturbing part, however."

They all perked up at that, if her having to be under some scums' command wasn't the worst, Garrus wasn't sure he wanted to know what was.

"Harper's people are known for having synthetic upgrades – not always voluntarily. A prime example is Kai Leng. Both Saren and Nihlus have come across him before, Garrus, I'm not sure you have. Either way, if that's what he does for people, then I don't like the chances of Isabelle not being forced to endure the same. The Alliance always states that they don't require their soldiers to get augmentations done… But that doesn't mean that Hackett won't allow Harper to alter her as he sees fit. You guys said she was in real bad shape when you handed her off – that would be just the excuse Harper needed to do some invasive surgeries."

They all sat there in companionable silence before Garrus spoke up. He still wasn't used to having a solid opinion on missions and plans of action, but he was passionate about this mission. It was growing to be something of an obsession for him to have Isa back.

"We need to track Harper's movements and find a way to separate Isa from him. Shepard, could you manage to hack any of the command lines? I know it's a lot to ask, but it's important."

Shepard raised an eyebrow at Garrus, something Garrus was aware meant surprise, and Saren and Nihlus' subvocals trilled a mix of surprise and, in Saren's case, confusion, over Garrus' outburst and attempt to take command of the situation.

Shepard cleared his throat and nodded, "While it is a huge risk, it's one I agree that I need to take. She's my sister and I want her away from that madman as soon as possible. She may lose her rank and position within the Alliance, though, if she agrees to break command and run."

Saren wasted no time covering that angle, "Then I will put her forth as a spectre candidate and do her spectre evaluation. Nihlus is already set to do yours."

Shepard's eyes bugged out a little bit and Garrus was sure his reaction was of similar fashion, "You would do that for Isabelle?" Shepard inquired and Saren just nodded.

They spent the next few hours putting together a plan of action before Shepard finally made to return to his ship. "I'll have my pilot, Joker, filled in on everything, but a few of my crew wouldn't deal with what we're doing well."

Saren nodded and Garrus moved to escort Shepard off of the ship. They were about to part ways when the human stopped abruptly, nearly making Garrus run in to him.

"You care about my sister a lot, don't you Garrus?" Shepard asked, still not making eye contact. Garrus was at a loss at how to answer. He wasn't sure the protocol on old brothers and cross-species romances. Hell, he wasn't even sure Shepard would be ok with him dating a turian. He was about to lie, but then Shepard made eye contact and his lie died in his throat.

"Very much, yes." His throat was burning from the confession. Her brother was finding out before she was that she was cared for, deeply.

Shepard merely nodded and patted Garrus on the arm. "You treat her well, then, when we get her back." Shepard seemed fine with that response, but Garrus was anything but. Humans weren't supposed to be this rational!

"You, you're fine with me and her? I mean, if there is a "me and her". I haven't exactly told her yet." Shepard chuckled and nodded. "Garrus, I'm dating a quarian. Inter-species dating doesn't really bother me, and more than that… You really want her back and that tells me that you care enough to do what's necessary."

Garrus just nodded as Shepard continued his path off of the ship and the doors closed and sealed behind him. So he had her brother's support to pursue her… Now all he needed was to know where she was in order to pursue.

* * *

Isabelle had tried every avenue of retreat from Jack's command. She contacted Hackett, tried to contact her brother – but no surprise there, he was not on her approved contact list on the terminal. Jack was not making this an easy thing to come to terms with.

Hackett had proved to be completely unhelpful, in fact he flat out told her to deal with it and that this was her new assignment. He had never forced her in to an assignment before and she was starting to feel like this was a pre-planned coup and she just had to provide the perfect reason for her to be transferred. Getting shot had proven to be the perfect excuse.

Shit, fuck, damnit, and bastards. She had a lot of obscenities being thrown around her head when she was called out to continue with her physical therapy. Fuck physical therapy. Fuck Jack Harper, and Fuck Admiral Hackett. Fuck the Alliance at this point.

She went to physical therapy, of course, because if she didn't then they would just come and collect her and while she had already broken a few soldier's noses, she wasn't really looking for a fight just yet. She needed to buy her time and figure a way out of this.

Hell, maybe it wouldn't be so bad. Maybe she could just do what they wanted and then get reassigned after. They couldn't make her do anything too horrible, could they? Shit… Of course they could. She knew as well as the next guy that unnamed units like this one were the shit that started wars.

Weeks later, Isabelle was sent on an actual mission. Supervised, of course. Miranda Lawson, if that was even her real name, and Jacob Taylor. She had worked with Taylor before and was surprised to find him, voluntarily, in a unit like this. It did not raise her opinion of him.

They were investigating some human colony that had gone dark, suspected batarian influence. It was always the batarians, they were the boogey men of the traverse. Being a good soldier, she wanted to help the colonists as much as the next guy, but she did not want to do it with the Harper Cheerleader and his pet pitbull watching her back.

In fact, taking a cue from her brother, she voiced as much. Not that it did any good. Taylor simply tried to nice his way around her nickname and Lawson made some show about being the one to save her life – and give her all these upgrades. Like she should be thankful, thankful is what you were when you wanted these things. Not when they were forced on you.

She made a mental note to get Lawson killed at some point, probably not on this mission, but sometime. Taylor was just too in love with himself to see anything negative about anything he did and Isabelle shortly gave up trying to convince him otherwise. It was a common theme in all of the reports she had read about him. Crashed ship, said it was a lousy ship. Shot civilian, said they were hindering mission. Blew up space port, said incoming pirates. If Isabelle believed any of his reasons, it wouldn't seem that bad. But she didn't, and neither did his command. He was just a putz who made excuses for his fuck ups… And now he was working for Jack.

She thought of when she was training with Jack. He was never this severe, nor so… Well… Such an asshole. He taught her to look at something from every possible angle, to never judge first and instead get all of the facts. And here he was having some clandestine unit with Alliance cast offs. She had caught people talking in xenophobic tones as well.

Hell, when they landed on the damned planet Lawson couldn't shut her trap about evil aliens and how humanity would never do such a thing. Didn't she know her own species history? Good lord the woman was seriously drinking the hateraid. Taylor, to his credit, made no comments and simply directed the mission.

There was no one here. The colonists were gone and there was no real showing as to who had taken them. Nothing left behind, not even an indication as to who took them. They stayed in the colony for a few hours trying to find some clue, but nothing came other than a run-in with some wild varen and some looters. At least Isabelle got to prove that her implants and improvements were taking as she had to dive behind cover to avoid a rabid varen bite to her ass.

As they left the colony, Lawson signed off her A-OK on Isabelle doing her own missions and then went to try and sell Isabelle on her alien-hate views. Of course according to Lawson they weren't alien hate, just pro-human. Though, she was against interspecies relationships, species intermingling anywhere except on the Citadel, etc. etc... Isabelle really wondered if this woman listened to the shit spewing out of her own mouth and eventually had to tune her out for fear of blowing up their shuttle.

Back on Jack's ship, Isabelle instantly went back to her own room to collect her thoughts. She was going to get her own missions soon, she wondered if that meant her omni-tool will be reactivated. She hoped so, she needed to contact her brother or her turians and start to formulate a plan out of here.

A few more faux missions and Isabelle was finally trusted enough to go on her own, though she wondered if she may have wished herself in to a worse situation. She was supposed to assassinate a salarian researcher. She didn't want to assassinate anyone except Jack Harper at the moment – and maybe Admiral Hackett. This assignment would "prove her loyalty". Prove it? She had none. She had to constantly remind herself she was playing along for the opportunity to run. Maybe this would be it?

Luckily they reactivated her omni-tool… But she quickly found out that they also hacked it and removed her contacts. Omni-tool contacts were twenty digit numbers, there was no way she could remember the contact number for her brother or any of her turian allies. God. Damn. Jack. Harper.

He knew what she might try and cut her off at the pass. Grudgingly, she suited up for her mission. She had to admit, she liked the uniform. All black with a red sash around her waist that criss-crossed her right thigh. Snazzy. She also got a black hood and red tactical mask. Well, at least she was stylin'.

She was dropped off on a small planet in salarian space and directions were uploaded to her omni-tool. While she didn't agree with this mission, she didn't want to get caught either. It was too ingrained in her to do the mission and not risk the Alliance; besides, who the hell would believe her? The story was too out there.

She started to work her way towards her target while trying to think of a way to escape. Harper had to have put a tracker in her omni-tool and she really didn't want to lead him to any of her hideouts. If she could somehow get in contact with one of her people, she could get them to come and get her, though they might not get there in time and she was certain that he'd be tracking her incoming and outgoing messages. She needed a helper… A helper that would not be tracked and who she could get to pass a message along. Perhaps she still had one channel open to her, afterall.

* * *

Garrus and Nihlus stepped out of the ship at the space port of some salarian research facility. They were just there to pick up some cargo and drop it off at the Citadel. Easy enough, but the shipper required them to meet him in person in his research facility. Something about wanting to meet the men who will be transporting his "precious cargo". Garrus never got salarian researchers, everything they touched was treated like ezo – the best shit in the galaxy.

Besides, this mission was taking them away from finding Isa and that, to him, was unforgiveable. Nihlus had been trying to hold a conversation with Garrus as they made their way to the central facility, but Garrus wasn't in a talking mood and Nihlus eventually gave up.

When they got to the facility they were directed to one of the central rooms. Of course, it couldn't be somewhere close.

By the time they got to the room the door wouldn't function and both turian's tolerance of this mission quickly began to reach the breaking point. "Spirits damn this idiot, he knew we were coming and he sealed the doors? Why do that when he called us for a transport?" Nihlus griped as he started to work on the door's override controls. Just as he finished they heard a gargle and a thump and rushed through the doors.

They were just in time to watch the life drain out of the salarian and see a pair of feet exit through a vent in the ceiling. An assassination and the assassin was making their escape. The two split up and followed the vent's supposed path via the base maps. Nihlus went one direction and Garrus sprinted in the other, each hoping to catch the assassin first.

Garrus got to the end of the ventilation shaft just in time to see the hatch close and the person, either human or asari, sprint down the hallway towards an exit. They were fast but didn't seem to realize that someone was actually following them until Garrus was right on her. She spun around and went to attack him but stalled for some reason, giving him the opportunity to pin her against a wall.

"Gotcha, little murderer, now tell me why you killed the doctor?" She was staring up at him from under her hood, her eyes glowing in a spooky and unsettling blue. He gripped her wrists that he had pinned above her head harder as he waited for her to answer and was rewarded with a flinch from her.  
He couldn't see her face, but the tone of her skin told him that she was human. So a human assassin was killing salarian doctors, now all he needed to know was why. She still hadn't answered him yet, but was still staring at him with some sort of uncertain calm.  
He gripped both of her hands with one of his and moved to remove his helmet – they needed them outside, but not indoors and he wondered if she would answer him if he made himself more personable, an old c-sec tactic to getting people comfortable enough to confess.

The reaction he got from her was the opposite of what he was expecting. Instead of relaxation and calm she inhaled sharply and tensed. He wasn't sure what it was about him that had her on edge, but he went to readjust his hold on her and she dropped and rolled to the side, effectively out of his grip.

He went to prepare to chase her again, but she wasn't running. Instead she was staring at him. He wondered if she was going to turn herself in and started to say something. Before he could really get a word out, she pulled the mask covering the bottom of her face down and her hood back, just enough to show her face but still covering her visage from the security cameras.

It was Isa. His heart stopped for a second before stepping up the tempo to the point where it felt like his heart was trying to leave his chest. Spirits, they had augmented her, her eyes were still glowing but it was less noticeable without the darkness of the hood. He wondered what else they had done to her but his questions could wait, would wait.

He moved towards her and she seemed to flinch, unsure of what to expect. Instead of immediately embracing her he ran his gloved hands over her cheeks and through her hair. He brought his face down to touch foreheads with her before burying his face in her neck and smelling her delicious scent.

She tensed at first, but then moved her hands up around his neck as she cradled his head as she buried his face in to her. He did embrace her then, crushing her to him as he told himself over and over again that it was her.

He knew he had some explaining to do regarding his behavior, but she was being receptive and his mind was wholly focused on her. He needed this, he needed her, and she was clinging to him just as harshly.

Finally his world seemed to right itself again.


	5. Chapter 5

**Sorry for the slight delay between chapters! I have a double post for you today to make up for it! **

**School is out for the summer and, while I still work full time, chapters should be more frequent in coming now!**

**Speaking of, have I told you all how awesome my Beta, Icyfreezerpop, is? She's awesome.**

**Little bit of a "adult situations" warning here - there are two. The one with Mr. Jack Harper is a bit rough, but I don't think anything horrible. We'll put a slight * trigger warning * just because I don't want to be one of those people who think that something isn't that bad and have someone react badly to it due to my oversight. If you think this trigger may effect you, the moment you see Jack Harper's POV, just skip to the next section.  
**

**All in all, ENJOY!**

* * *

It took Garrus a moment to realize that he should probably move them somewhere safer – somewhere away from the security cameras, and made to pull her into a dark alcove. She moved with him willingly, making sure to keep her head ducked low to avoid any of her features being seen.

He pulled her into his embrace again and rested his head atop of hers. It felt like all of his concerns for the past few weeks, months, eternities was lifted. She was alive and he could touch her again. She may be altered, but it didn't seem to be anything too traumatic and he could overlook the slightly glowing eyes… After he got used to them.

He had another delayed realization that, while she was obviously okay with simply being held at this point, she might misunderstand his reasons. He knew this wasn't the ideal setting, and he knew that they had other concerns, but he had waited once and missed his chance and he was not going to repeat the same mistake.

"Isa," he started as he pulled away from her a bit, "I know this isn't the right time, nor the right place, but I… I care about you."

It wasn't everything he wanted to say, it wasn't the true depth of his attachment to her, but it was all he could manage to choke out. Spirits, even to him it sounded underwhelming and lame.

She stared up at him wide eyed for a moment as color crept up her cheeks. He knew what that meant now, embarrassment and feeling "flushed" – whatever that meant. He read that humans did that for a variety of reasons and not all were good to his cause. He started to fidget a bit as she said nothing for a few moments.

"Why did you leave after I hugged you that night in my cabin? I thought… I thought I had insulted you or pushed your boundaries…"

If he had the flexibility, he would kick himself in the ass for his reaction then. But, to be fair to himself, he didn't really understand his emotions then so it's not like he can really say "if I had known"… Because he didn't know. He sighed and placed his hand on the back of her neck.

"You took me by surprise… I hadn't really thought about an 'us' yet. When you left, though, I knew that I had to find you. I had to bring you back… and I failed. Then I failed you again by handing you over to that Jack Harper guy. What did he do to you, besides the eyes?"

His mind was going at a million kilometers per minute, he was asking a new question before he had completed the previous thought. He told himself to breathe and to calm down, he began massaging his fingers over the back of her neck as he waited for her response.

She dropped her head at his question and leaned her forehead against his chest. He wrapped his arms more fully around her and waited, not knowing what to expect.

"Bone and skin weaves, ocular upgrades and a new biotic amp… I didn't volunteer." She said the last part with such a bitter and forlorn tone that his heart broke for her. What would it be like to wake up and find that you had been changed? He couldn't fathom it.

"Are you sure you still want to try for something with me, knowing I'm not wholly… natural?" She didn't look up at him, she was giving him an out from his earlier confession after giving him this new information.

He wasn't going to back out.

"I won't leave your side unless you no longer want me there." He said it firmly, maybe a bit too firmly. Turians were fairly severe in serious relationships and he had read that humans were more casual and less likely to commit for long terms. He still wanted to take the risk with her even knowing that he might become more attached than she.

She looked up at him then and stared wide-eyed. She inhaled a shaky breath and then wrapped her arms around his neck in order to pull herself up to his level. She first pressed her forehead to his and then kissed him the human way. Electricity jolted from his lip plates to his toes and suddenly this alcove was not private enough.

She pulled back and smiled crookedly, "Are you sure you want me to come with? Jack won't give up easily and I'll be a fugitive from the Alliance."

He was already shaking his head before she could finish her sentence, "We've already discussed it, with your brother. You're coming with us. We will stand with you."

She blushed again and her grip on him momentarily hardened. He took that as a good sign. She nodded and finally slid herself down his torso to touch her feet to the ground again. When had her feet left the ground?

"Lead the way, then." It was all that she said, but she firmly gripped his hand in her own. It was awkward having her five fingers around his three, but it was a pleasant awkward and it felt right.

She ended up having to remain cloaked throughout their trek through the compound. He had sent a quick message to Nihlus outlining who their killer was and what he was doing with her. Nihlus responded that he would get the ship ready to move out as soon as possible and would meet them at the dock checkpoint.

Despite some chaos at the checkpoint while trying to leave everything went off without a hitch. The salarian guards were looking for a human or asari formed person – not a turian. Isa was able to sneak past while cloaked without being detected and managed to get on to the ship.

They had a moment where her cloak stuttered and a dock worker spotted the shimmer. Nihlus and Garrus held their breaths and were ready to knock the man out should he discover her. Luckily for both the salarian and the turians, he didn't find her. It was entirely too close for comfort as the worker nearly bumped into Isa while turning around and muttering about taking too many stims.

Once on the ship, she uncloaked and was quickly dragged into rough hugs from both Nihlus, and uncharacteristically Saren, though after a quick moment, he recovered himself. Saren took control by outlying their plan from this point – get as far away from this planet as possible and alert John Shepard that they had his sister safely on their ship.

The entire thing seemed too easy to Garrus and judging by the way Isa kept fidgeting and checking her omni-tool she felt the same way. They felt the ship lurch indicating they were leaving the port and Garrus led her back to her room.

Nihlus hadn't asked where they were going and made no move to follow, smirking at Saren who was watching the two curiously. When Saren caught Nihlus' eye he chuckled slightly and put their plans in to motion. It was all going perfectly and now they just needed to make sure Isa was safe from the Alliance blowback.

Garrus opened the door to her room and Isa moved in before him. She stood in the center of her room and took a deep breath, closing her eyes. He was finally greeted with the sight he had longed to see for months – Isa in her room aboard the same ship as him. Hell, he didn't care what ship as long as he was on it with her.

He moved behind her and pulled her hood off and removed her lower face covering. He could finally see her without obstruction and wasted no time hugging her to him and burring his face against her neck. He inhaled deeply breathing in the scent that was her – jasmine and vanilla. He had hunted the scents relentlessly until he could name them.

She finally seemed to relax now as she rested her weight against him, her hands moving to cover his on her abdomen.

* * *

Isabelle couldn't really believe her luck or where she was. She was back on Saren's ship, back in her own room and had Garrus holding her from behind. Jack Harper was not here, he was not lording over her – for the moment, and she was free to simply bask in the fact that Garrus apparently cared for her. Cared for her!

She was finally able to relax and covered his hands with her own, silently giving him the silent permission he apparently was waiting for. As soon as she did, he moved in front of her and pressed his forehead against hers.

She had always seen turians do this to those they cared for but had never experienced it for herself. Saren and Nihlus had done it during their trysts, but she had never made such a move and it was never made towards her. That should have been her first clue as to the depth of emotions between those two. It had never bothered her nor made her uncomfortable to not be a participant. She had never desired to place her forehead against someone else's, never before now.

Being this close to Garrus' face made her stomach flutter and her cheeks heat. She now understood why this act seemed so intimate between two individuals of a species that couldn't kiss in the human and asari traditions. She was inhaling his breath as he was hers and that thought alone sent a rush of heady need straight through her like an electric shock.

She moved the kiss from turian to human by moving her body firmly against his and rolling her face against his, melding her soft lips to his solid ones. Her tongue ran over the edge of his lips until they parted in a soft moan. She took advantage of the moan to trace her tongue along his and that was apparently his breaking point.

He lifted her up and helped to wrap her legs around his waist. He ground up against her fruitlessly, his armor preventing his apparent erection from receiving any relief from the action. She needed the rectified now, this moment.

She disentangled herself from him and instantly started removing her own armor. He simply watched her with a predatory glean in his eye until she cleared her throat and waved her hand impatiently.

"This doesn't work if I'm the only one naked…" She joked, a soft smirk playing on her reddened lips.

He jerked his head to look from her chest to her face when her words seemed to slowly sink in and he nodded and began removing his armor. Removing wasn't quite the right word for what she saw Garrus doing. It was more like he was waging war on his armor as quickly as possible. He got stuck on a couple of latches that refused to release their hold until he beat and cursed it into submission.

She watched the entire ordeal, already naked, and with a lighthearted humor she hadn't felt in a long time. The feeling distracted her for a moment from what they were about to do and her mind wandered to the last time she had felt so… Light. It had been years, long before she had started her work as a corsair.

It was so long ago she couldn't pinpoint when she went from just happy to having to think of everything and everyone as a trap, as dead weight, as a means to an end. Instead she was with someone who was so excited to be with her that he, a hardened soldier who was having trouble getting his armor off. She knew that the moment they left this room all of her worries would come right back, but for now she had none.

He was finally as naked as she as her thoughts drifted back to the present, his fingers were running over her jaw and she realized she must have been in her own mind for longer than she realized. He looked concerned and she blushed.

"Where did you go?" He asked softly, concern and adoration playing over his face as if at war with one another.

"I was just thinking that I hadn't been this… Happy, in a long while. I guess I got lost trying to remember the last time I was this relaxed and happy."

He seemed to puff up at her words, despite the tomato blush covering her face. He brought his face down on hers and ran his tongue over her lips in the same fashion she had done to him earlier. She moaned just as he had and her thoughts and needs were brought right back to the present.

Every taste of him, every brush of his talons over her skin and every time her stomach pressed against his, electric shocks of need would pulse through her veins. She needed him more than she needed her next breath.

They had finally moved over to the bed after a few moments of tasting and feeling each other, she wasn't sure how long they had stood there, moving back and forth as they learned the lay of the land of each other's body. The back of his knees hit the bed first and ever mindful of his leg spurs, he fell backwards on the bed as intended.

She stood over him for a moment, her eyes hungry for the sight of him, for the sight of his feelings for her both physically on display as well as within his expression. Her heart swelled as she made eye contact with him. He wasn't holding anything back, the strength of his emotions for her were easily readable in his eyes and in the way he touched her. She hesitated to put a title on it as it was still young, still new. They needed to tread carefully else they lose this opportunity, this gift.

That being said, she could admit that she felt the same. She slowly kneeled on the bed and crawled over him, positioning herself directly over his member. He groaned as she hovered close enough to feel the heat from her core wafting over his flesh, but never touching. Instead, she lowered her face to his neck and started lightly biting and licking.  
She wondered how long she could tease him before one of them had to take this all the way. She was feeling playful with her new realizations of companionship and freedom. She was going to have this last as long as possible, unwilling to relinquish control just yet.

* * *

He couldn't believe the force of the emotions that were running through him. He was a slave to his need for her and helpless against the affection that was breaking down his defenses for her. He would bond this woman someday, he knew that now. He wouldn't tell her for a while, but he knew in his bones that she was his for the rest of his life.

He had other partners, some even serious, but never had he felt this strong need to just be with another person. To see them at their best and their worst.

Right now, however, he just wanted her to lower her hips another fraction of an inch. He needed to be inside her more than he needed his next breath. Instead she was teasing his neck in ways he never knew he liked. Each bite went directly to his cock and he would twitch against the warmth radiating from her core.

He needed to feel the warmth that core promised, needed to feel enveloped by it. He had never been with a human before and while their anatomy seemed similar enough, he understood that they were like moist silk in their privates – at least their women were. He had done extensive "research" over the past few months and all it did was fuel his need to be in her, no one else.

Finally, after one particularly strong bite, he couldn't handle it anymore. He growled loudly as he clamped his hands on her waist and pulled her down over him.

Sparks erupted behind his eyes as he slid so easily in to her. She was so tight, felt so good; he didn't move for a solid minute to keep himself from finishing too quickly. Just entering her made him ready to explode. He needed this to last, needed to feel her orgasm over him.

She moaned against his neck and went to rise up, he was worried he had hurt her and started to say something but instead he was choked off by the feel of her muscles rippling around his cock. His eyes closed and his head fell back.

Spirits he didn't know humans had that much muscle control! He heard her chuckle softly as she started to move over him. Her moans were growing increasingly loud as he struggled to maintain his stillness. He was so close throughout the entire act that he had to keep his eyes closed and his head back in order to concentrate on not releasing his seed in her.

Then she did this thing with her hips, this twist and grip movement and he was lost. He let out a shuddering yell as he thrust up and pounded into her above him, driving her from the bed each time. His hands holding her down on his hips as he thrust up harshly in to her.

She groaned and started to shake just as his control was lost and he spilled inside of her. Her own muscles started to convulse over him and he was instantly thrust into another orgasm. He managed to open his eyes just enough to see what had spurred this reaction in her only to see her mirror his expression. He had brought her to release too!

His chest puffed slightly again as he prided himself on being able to please her. He didn't have long to wallow in his pride, however, because she had what she would later describe as an "aftershock" and it pulled another orgasm harshly out of him.

She finally collapsed on top of him and he just held her as they caught their breath, neither apparently were ready from the force of their joining, the emotions that drove passion into form. Eventually her breath evened out and her fingertips began to run over the soft hide in between his plates. He felt little shocks of pleasure emanating from the spots where her fingers were gliding and he let out a soft purr.

She chuckled in response and lifted her head up to place her chin on his chest and stare up at him, a small smile playing on her lips. "Was it good for you?" She had asked and he looked at her dubiously. Was it good for him? It was probably the best sex he'd ever had and not due to technique or species. It was the first time he had copulated with someone he lo… Liked so intensely.

"I'm not sure, I think I need a few more rounds to decide." He joked, hoping that she wouldn't take his lack of immediate praise as an insult. He wanted nothing more but to tell her that it was probably the most mind-bending sex he had ever had, his pride wouldn't let him tell her.

Luckily for him she just chuckled and raised herself up, tensing her muscles around his still hard member. "Well I'll just have to convince you then, won't I?"

It was the best, most exhausting, and most satisfying night of his life thus far.

* * *

Jack Harper was not a happy man by default, but he also wasn't known for being quick to enrage either. When Miranda Lawson broke the news that Isabelle Shepard's mission had brought her in to contact with the turians he had removed her from previously and that she had left with him, he had gone into a blind rage.

He threw the contents of his desk to the floor and grabbed the brunette woman by her neck, bringing her in close to his face.

"You lost her!?" He ground out, his face so close to hers that their noses were touching.

"She left with the young turian from before… She has affection for him, judging from the footage we were able to recover."

He quickly grabbed her and spun her around, pushing her over the now bare desk and ripped her flimsy pants down her body. She gave no resistance as he undid his own zipper and thrust himself into her. It was no secret that Lawson was one of his playthings, but that didn't stop him from meting out his punishment upon her.

And she loved it.

She was wet, the whore. She longed for his rough treatment of her and had probably set this entire mission up with this punishment in mind. She was moaning as he pounded in to her violently, his mind already on the multiple ways he would retrieve Isabelle. He needed her back and he would kill all who got in his way.

First to die would be that damned young turian traveling with Saren and Nihlus. She obviously cared for him and he would remove that temptation. She would be his and his alone. He hadn't felt a sexual need towards her, just a need to dominate her career and use her talents to benefit him. But now that she had betrayed him he felt like breaking her down sexually as well. He would own her in every way possible – just like he owned Miranda.

He finished and quickly stepped back, letting Lawson fall to the ground. He paid her no mind as he zipped his pants and left his office to go to the communications room. He needed to contact Hackett and tell him the grim news.

They would drive Isabelle back to the Alliance and back to Jack's team any way possible. Jack Harper could control anyone he wanted whenever he wanted and the fact that Isabelle was resisting him in every way possible was simply another challenge for him to overcome. He knew she'd be his greatest apprentice and next he would make her his greatest prize.

* * *

Isabelle woke slowly becoming aware of the large, hard and hot thing behind her. She turned to come face to face with a sleeping turian, one who had exhausted her the previous night. She smiled softly as she cuddled herself as close to him as possible.

He automatically draped his arm over her hip and pulled her closely against her, muttering something indiscernible into her hair.

She was as content as she had ever been, her body hurting in all of the right places and relaxed in all of the ways she hadn't been in ages. Her heart felt like it would burst and she couldn't resist the urge to press her forehead against his.

She chuckled as he nuzzled into her touch and growled softly.

When he fully woke he smiled at her and hugged her closely for a while, just content to hold her and she was content with being held.

Eventually they roused themselves up enough to shower and get dressed – ready to start the day and battle for Isabelle's future, together.


	6. Chapter 6

**As promised, number two of the night!**

* * *

Nothing was said as Garrus and Isabelle exited her quarters together and she smiled inwardly. Garrus must had made his affections clear already otherwise she would've been greeted by cat calls and hoots of good-humored mocking. Instead, as it was, she was greeted by Nihlus simply smiling and giving her another hug while Saren sat back in his chair and silently toasted his coffee-like drink in her direction.

She felt the need to blush, like she was being congratulated on finally getting a shag in from someone they both approved of. Nothing like the time they had caught her with some drell assassin shortly after their own relationship had suffered. Mocking jeers would be an understatement and there was nothing good-natured about the comments.

They wasted no time getting to the planning as she got her own coffee and joined them for breakfast.

"Your brother is meeting us in a few hours, then we're going to the Citadel to finalize Garrus becoming a Spectre."

Garrus coughed a bit on his own drink as he stared at Nihlus, "Really? Already?" He seemed as surprised as Isabelle was about the sudden news.

Nihlus simply chuckled and nodded. "Yeah. I have another candidate ready to go. Your brother, Isa. Garrus, you've proved that you can plan and lead on the spot. You were pretty much a shoe in from the start. We need to get the ball rolling so that Saren can officially take Isa under his wing – the official statement from the Alliance that Isa is a traitor and to be arrested on the spot has already hit the extranet."

She just looked into her mug, losing herself in her own thoughts as Garrus, Nihlus, and Saren went over their plan. She knew she should be listening but the news that the Alliance had branded her a traitor already has a hard knock to take. Sure, she had expected it, but the reality of it had hit her harder than she anticipated.

She had sacrificed so much for the Alliance; her health, her relationships, her family… She thought back over all of the missed family reunions, birthdays, deaths… John hadn't really forgiven her for many years for missing their father's death. Their mother had died long before either had joined the Alliance and their father was an officer. He had died in the line of duty and she hadn't found out until she came back from deep cover and had mourned alone.

John had been furious with her while dealing with his own grief and it took them years to finally come to some semblance of a "normal" relationship. Sure, she'd count their relationship good now, but it was still never the same than before. They had been close, closer than most of her friends and their siblings growing up. She always chalked it up to their mom dying when they were so young.

Now, because she was refusing to be turned in to something she was not, she was being disowned by her makeshift family, her purpose. She was honored that Saren, Nihlus and Garrus had already planned to adopt her into their family, their Spectre family; but, it still didn't completely balm the burn she felt from the Alliance's quick dismissal.

She felt a familiar warmth grow in her chest as she watched the three, unaware of their discussion, but none the less aware of the excitement flowing between them. They were excited for the challenge, excited for the future with her a part of it. She silently pledged her allegiance to them. She would protect them with her life. They were owed that much from her.

They had said her name and it took a moment for her to respond, Garrus' hand waving in front of her face with a look of amusement plastered on his face. He was apparently getting used to her spacing out. She smiled at him and nodded, signaling that she was listening.

"Isa, you'll stay on the ship while we work everything out with the Counsel. I don't want you risking yourself so soon and I would rather we don't risk a confrontation until we're on our own terms."

She nodded again, it made sense and she wasn't sure she was ready to start fighting the Alliance soldiers that would surely be looking for her – both with and without her gear. Harper would certainly plaster her gear choices all over the wanted posts, showing every possible angle as to how she would look and she didn't have the gear with her to change her features even temporarily.

The hours flowed quickly and soon they were joined by John, who wasted no time embracing his sister and giving her a good once over, cursing at the changes Jack Harper had forced his sister to endure. He accepted Nihlus' offer of candidacy – something Isa was sure had already been discussed due to the lack of questions flowing from her brother's lips.

They had all come together for her and she found more comfort in that than she did from being free of Harper, for now. She was under no illusion that Harper wasn't already mounting a counteroffensive, but now she was prepared and had her own crack team watching her back.

* * *

The events of the next day flew by for Garrus. He spent his nights deliciously engrossed with making up for lost time with Isa and his days preparing for the upcoming ceremony and battles. Hell, to him the ceremony would be a battle. Nihlus had to state his reasons for approving Garrus far ahead of the normal schedule.

Not that Spectre apprenticeship ever really had a schedule or preplanned path, other than working with an established Spectre. But that didn't stop the Counsel from being suspicious over quick resolutions. They liked them in every other department and Garrus understood to a point – Spectres did work outside of the law and were a force unto themselves.

He still wasn't really looking forward to the entire thing. Isa couldn't watch by his side, he couldn't see her reaction as he stepped forward and took the oath. She was going to watch via vidcom, Saren had agreed to have his personal monitor trained on Garrus as he accepted his new role, but it wasn't the same.

She had admitted to feeling much the same, but that didn't mean that either of them were willing to risk the consequences of her possibly being caught if she were to go on the Citadel. It wouldn't do for his first act as a Spectre to kill a bunch of Alliance soldiers in defense of his fugitive girlfriend. That and he wasn't entirely sure the idea of having to kill the soldiers really sat well with him, they were doing their job and were unaware of the extenuating circumstances.

No, they would avoid the situation as much as possible until they could be sure the soldiers coming for Isa were truly the ones whose deaths were earned and not bought.

He kissed her in both the human and turian ways one last time before leaving the ship with Nihlus, Saren and Shepard. They were taking a risk as it was, leaving her alone, but she promised to hide herself in case someone bribed the dock workers to allow them to search the ship.

It was pretty much a guarantee that such a thing would happen so she already had her hiding place scoped out and had already hidden any evidence of her presence.

He went through the motions, the turian counselor advocating his promotion and the asari counselor seconding it. The only one who seemed adverse to the idea was the salarian counselor. It was always the salarians, as they seemed to relish in taking time to look at every possible angle.

Finally he stepped forward, his head held high as he took his oath. He was now Spectre Vakarian. He now could protect Isa with all the force of the Citadel at his disposal. It was funny to him, he had started this entire journey wanting the authority to make a difference with the criminal element and it ended with his burning need to simply protect the one he lo… The one who was most important to him.

Nihlus stepped forward and made his official recommendation for John Shepard to enter into Spectre candidacy and offered up his expertise to evaluate the human. Saren seconded the recommendation and offered himself as an evaluator as well. The Counsel was obviously surprised by this action and spent the next hour questioning the two if they truly thought humans were ready for this step.

The unanimous decision was that humanity as a whole wasn't but under the guidance of select humans, like John Shepard, they could become ready. The Counsel reluctantly gave their blessing on the evaluation and they left feeling slightly invisible.

Officially, Garrus was on his own, but Saren made sure he was aware that he would be welcome on his ship until this entire thing with Isa was over and done with. Then the two of them could find their own ship and go their own way. The suggestion of them staying on the ship was, besides the sensible thing to do, was also a thinly veiled order from Saren. He wanted to be able to keep an eye on Isa himself.

Garrus detected a note of sorrow as Saren talked of Isa leaving and, as perverse as the idea could be, he thought that Saren had something of a brotherly affection for the human. He felt the need to watch over her and cared for her more than simply a friend. Saren didn't have friends. He had family and enemies and she and Garrus were obviously firmly entrenched in the family side of things.

They returned to the ship, planning Shepard's trials as they went and working out the logistics of whose ship would be better suited – Nihlus would be going to his as Shepard already had his own full crew.

When they noticed that the dock workers were apprehensive about their return. The ship had been boarded in their absence, as they suspected it would be. They entered carefully, and other than a few items out of place, nothing was horribly damaged. The team who had swept the ship had been quick, efficient and hopefully unsuccessful.

It took them a while to get a fix on Isa, she had shimmied her way down the tubing to the bowels of the ship to avoid thermal scans by having her body heat blend it with that of the system core. She was overheated and cranky, but obviously unharmed.

Garrus helped her out of the tubes and she rewarded him with a winning smile, a kiss, and a long hug. She congratulated him on his status and whispered that they would celebrate later. If he could, he would have blushed, but instead he simply pressed his forehead against hers. He realized that he was showing his affection towards her more than he ever had with anyone else.

He knew that this was going entirely too smoothly. Sure, their ship had been boarded but she hadn't been found. Shepard had been approved for evaluation, and they were all together. He was no longer simmering in the confusion of what he felt for the small, strange human and was basking in the affections she freely lavished on him and he on her.

They left the Citadel with haste, returning Shepard to his ship and saying their temporary goodbyes to Nihlus as well. It felt weird to not have Nihlus on the ship, but it was necessary to achieve their goals. Saren seemed to take the change in stride, more used to his lover's absence than the others. He had been a Spectre for a long time – as had Nihlus. It was part of the territory and they were trying to put on a front that they didn't need the extra body.

A front that Isa was not on the ship and everything was perfectly normal and mundane.

Everything continued to go much smoother than any of them had anticipated. Their first few missions were as easy as anyone could wish for. No unnecessary deaths and no nasty surprises. They were almost convinced that Harper wasn't looking for Isa as desperately as they had initially though. Almost.

It wasn't until they had boarded a derelict ship that their vacation from worry was interrupted. Altered soldiers had jumped out of the darkness, surprising them. They took the soldiers down, not necessarily with ease, and were congratulated by a vid of Harper.

He had congratulated Isa on her lover's promotion, had offered her a chance to turn herself in and spare her from what he felt he had to do – something he didn't elaborate on, and said that he had made her an almost perfect soldier. If only he hadn't allowed that free will thing to sneak by.

Garrus shot the holodeck before Isa could even respond, willing her to stay with him. "Fuck him, we can protect you." She nodded, but a haunted look had crossed briefly over her features and he wasn't sure that she was entirely convinced.

They returned to the ship and he spent the next few hours trying to convince her of just how capable he was.

* * *

Isabelle had been living in a fantasy world for the past few weeks. Easy mission after easy mission and Garrus by her side throughout. She had let herself admit that she was in love with the big guy. She may have admitted it to herself, but she wasn't ready to tell him.

It wasn't until Harper's holo that the weight of dread had solidified in her gut and refused to leave. Garrus noticed it too and did his best to distract her from the weight of the anxiety. She tried to play it off, but the way Harper had looked at Garrus when he said "spare her from what he had to do" had sent chills up her spine. She was remarkably unconcerned for her brother. He was untouchable as far as Harper was concerned for the moment thanks to Nihlus and all of humanity watching his progress.

He was the best of humanity and too much rode on his success; something even Harper wouldn't fuck with. Saren had known this when he suggested John be put forth as a Spectre candidate. Isa was more worried with her companions and what could be done to them in Harper's revenge. They weren't human and therefore more worthless than dirt to a man like Harper.

She wondered when she stopped thinking of him as Jack and started referring him to only his last name. _Probably when he fucked with your physiology and filled you full of unwanted tech_. She berated herself. Of course she no longer thought of him as Jack, he wasn't the Jack she knew. He was a bastard in Jack's skin.

They were preparing for a routine mission on some dust planet, running reconnaissance on a small mining facility that had gone dark. She was allowed to participate in missions as long as she kept herself covered at all times. Saren had quickly noticed that keeping her from missions was… Unhealthy for his ship. She had a bad habit of taking things apart to see how they worked when she was bored. The coffee pot was the first death to this curiosity.

The mission seemed routine and everything seemed in place. They were on the lookout for anything out of sorts, but nothing seemed to be off. It wasn't until a shuttle started to approach that the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end.

"Ambush!" She cried out of instinct, they all ducked behind cover and the firefight began shortly thereafter. The overwhelming force of their opposition was a surprise to even Saren – where had they been hiding? It had gone from no signs to endless enemies as far as the eye could see.

Though the fight itself was ill-remembered by her, she remembered the overwhelming force of the soldiers attacking them. Mechs and engineers everywhere. However they were still making solid headway to their ship when they got separated by another drop of mechs.

They were still managing to make progress towards the ship when another drop ship appeared. This one dropped no bodies, but instead started firing on their separate locations. They, Saren and Isa, were not the main focus. Garrus was.

She screamed as one shot made a direct hit, her legs moving before her brain had a moment to rethink her actions. She heard his strained cry over their coms as the ship lashed out its' last bit of vengeance in the form of a precise shell drop.

The shell made purchase as the mist of blue rose in the air. Knowing that they were successful in their goal, the ship started to land to finish off the battle-shocked survivors. It was a stupid move by the pilot because as soon as it landed the wrath of an angel of vengeance was upon them.

She knew he was dead, she knew that Harper had just taken her reason for trying away from her and she could only see red. Rage flowed through her as she rushed through the opened cargo door and worked her way methodically throughout the ship.

None would survive her rage and the moans of the dying echoed throughout the ship. She had even been shot herself a few times, though she didn't feel the pain of the wounds. It made no difference, they would die all the same. She was leaving the ship with the pilot's head dangling from her closed fist when Saren finally managed to get to where Garrus had last been.

Saren made no attempt to talk to her as he stood over Garrus' lifeless body. Mangled and lifeless.  
She dropped the decapitated head unceremoniously and collapsed beside her dead lover. Dragging his head into her lap she let out a wail of absolute despair. Saren would later comment that he had never heard anything like it before or sense. It wasn't a sound that left you easily.

She felt her world crumble under her and all she could think was that they would pay. She would make them all pay. She would become the embodiment of rage and death and would make Jack Harper regret he ever set his eyes on her. He would regret fucking with Isabelle Shepard.

* * *

She stayed there for what seemed like hours before Saren finally was forced to drag her away as reinforcements started to land. Under heavy fire he dragged the small human through the fray and onto the ship. They took off and he left her standing in the galley while he made the necessary calls.

She didn't move until they broke orbit and he found her where he left her, blue and red blood dripping from her fingertips. She was in shock and he wasn't entirely sure how to deal with it.

He treated her as he would a turian, stripping her and forcing her to shower. She cried, a lot. Not soft, dutiful cries, but cries of broken anguish. His heart broke for her and what she lost, unable to really comfort her in any meaningful way.

He felt the need to call Nihlus but waited until he contacted him – unsure of where and what his companion was doing. He waited until the water had turned off in the shower and he could hear Isa moving around on her own.

When he was certain that she wouldn't need additional help, he placed the call while still in the Galley. Nihlus' face appeared on the vid screen and Saren released a breath he wasn't aware he was holding.

"Got your message Saren, what happened? You just said that Harper had finally made his move?"

Saren looked back towards the bathroom as Isa moved from there to her own room, locking herself in. He turned back to the screen and to Nihlus' confused face.

"Vakarian is dead. We walked in to a trap, but he was the obvious target. Air assault, he had no chance."

The brutality of dropping an ammunition shell on one person was not lost on Saren, it would have been beautiful overkill had it not been unleashed on someone he considered friend. Nihlus said nothing for a moment, the shock sinking in.

"Shit… How is she?"

"Taking it horribly… About how I would expect. I don't like the look in her eyes… She's not going to react well to this."

Nihlus just nodded and sighed, running his hand over his fringe in a characteristically human fashion. "Yeah, but if there's one thing I've learned about humans it's that you can't expect them to react like a turian in these situations… We have to let her do her own thing and just be there for her."

Saren hated to admit that Nihlus was right, but he had learned his fair share of humans as well and couldn't disagree. Isa would probably leave, and he could understand her desire to seek retribution by herself to prevent him or Nihlus from being made a target as well; but he wasn't going to let her go without a fight.

"I won't just let her go, but I won't hunt her down if she does…"

Nihlus nodded and then his eyes softened. "Hell of a thing… He was a good kid, they were… Well… You know."

Saren nodded and let his understanding of her loss show on his face, "Yeah, I couldn't imagine…"

They spent the rest of the night seeking the only comfort they could from one another from such a distance.

True to predictions, Isa left a few weeks later. She went through the stages of grief and seemed stuck on rage. Saren tried to talk her out of it, but when she left the ship on Omega he let her go. She had a plan and was unafraid of being caught by the Alliance, she made it clear that his presence wasn't going to be needed – but she promised to keep in contact.

She had mutter something about making them regret wanting her back before she disappeared on the unruly mining colony.

He heard a few days later that a squad of Alliance soldiers had died at the renegade Isabelle Shepard's hands. She was in custody and had been sentenced to life in some high-security prison. He, Nihlus and Shepard had wondered if they would need to break her out when Shepard had finished his assessment.

As it was, the galaxy seemed to decide that there was less time for personal agenda and more for preventing the systems from tearing each other apart.

Weeks turned in to months and months into two years.

Shepard was accepted in to the Spectres and the three joined forces regularly to take down the seemingly unending forces plaguing the galactic community. They met regularly to discuss breaking Isa out of prison, but given the state of the galaxy they unanimously agreed that she would be safe where she was for now.

They had just started discussing a real escape plan for Isa when a bulletin went out on secure channels that there was a mass revolt at one of the prisons, the one Isa was at, and that two biotics had escaped after massacring a slew of guards and other prisoners. Isa, now known as 'Elle' and someone known as "Subject Zero", namely Jack, or also known as the "Psychotic Biotic".

Isa was apparently making friends.

Saren and Nihlus looked over the file on Isa since her incarceration. She had accrued tattoos, mostly prison tattoos. She had a penchant for killing people who threatened her or made a move to dominate her and quickly became friends with a resident menace.

_Of course she did_, Saren thought. It appeared that Saren wouldn't have to work with Nihlus and Shepard to get her out, she had done it on her own.

The last known location of her was at Omega and last seen with Zaeed Massani, the usurped leader of the Blue Suns gone mercenary.

"Shit." Saren said, Nihlus finally coming over to read over his shoulder. He shared the expletive and chuckled a bit. "Well, she amassing herself a small army, isn't she? Massani was just rumored to me making a move against the current leader of the Suns." He said with entirely too much appreciation for her efforts.

"Yeah, but Massani? Couldn't she stick with people not on our already long wanted list?" Saren was annoyed that she was turning to the underbelly of society, not only that, but she fit in so well. He kept finding his eyes drawn to a new scar on her cheek. It was faint, but had once probably been a nasty wound.

"Not for what she's planning. Besides, if she's as good a criminal as she was a spy then she'll have them all eating out of her hands in no time."

"That's what I'm afraid of." Saren sent a message to Shepard to get his opinion on the situation when another ping hit his terminal.

It was from his brother, Desolas. Desolas Arterius hadn't talked to Saren in decades, not since he was dishonored for being too pro-turian following the First Contact Wars. He had a "surprise" for Saren… Something that required his immediate attention.

Saren closed the message and scoffed, turning to look at an overly curious Nihlus. He loved the man, but damnit he was entirely too nosy. "Forget it, nothing good will come of it." Nihlus simply clicked his mandibles in that haughty, "whatever you say" way that made Saren's blood boil.

Before they could get into a fight over it, another ping, another message from Desolas appeared on his terminal. It was a medical readout on a turian that had been dead but was brought back due to the "wonders" in technology. Saren cursed as he found his stomach drop while reading the reports.

* * *

Garrus found himself waking on a hard and cold surface, his face hurt like hell and the room seemed too bright. His body hurt and his ears were ringing.

Where was he? The last thing he remembered was trying to get to the ship with Saren and Isa. Isa. He sat up and looked around more forcefully. There were loud noises, explosions, and someone over an intercom.

"Vakarian, you need to get up. You need to get your gear and a pistol. I'll explain everything when we meet up, but for now, you need to stay alive…"


	7. Chapter 7

Garrus awoke to alarms and gun shots. His disorientation was only furthered when he was instructed by a clearly feminine voice to move his ass and grab armor and a weapon.

Wherever he had woken, it was not a peaceful place. He was thrust directly into battle with little more than a pistol. The voice over the intercom was instructing him in basic combat moves as if he had forgotten.

As if. He thought callously to himself. He barely had a moment to breathe let alone figure out where the hell he was.

Where was Isa? Where was Saren? He was with them last. All he remembered was watching Isa duck under cover and then white hot pain before he must have passed out. Now he was in this sterile facility that was obviously under attack from something or someone and was being ordered around like a green recruit fresh off the transport.

Finally he started to get somewhere, a male human biotic who taking pot shots across a chasm at some of the hostiles – mechs.

No time for introductions as Garrus moved to assist the human. Once the mechs were disposed of the man stood and looked at Garrus with astonishment.

"You weren't supposed to be up yet. She had said that it would take longer. Tough son of a bitch."

Nothing about any of these sentences made a lick of sense to Garrus. Up from what? His black out? What would take longer? He did appreciate being called tough, however, so he would take the compliments as they came.

"You know me, but I have no clue who you are or where I am. What happened to me? Where is my team?" Garrus was straining to remain calm as the harsh reality of confusion that was settling over him now that he finally had some time to actually think.

"I'm sorry, this must all be a bit overwhelming for you. My name is Jacob, I am here with Dr. Michel and Desolace Arterius. You were dead when we found you. Dr. Michel is the one who brought you back, this is her operation."

Dr. Michel? Dead? How long was he..? No, no it simply wasn't possible. Even with the advances in medical science, it simply wasn't possible. They must be mistaken.

"If I were dead than there is no way I am alive and talking to you now, not unless I'm some sort of AI." His gut churned at the idea, could they have just implanted a Garrus AI into a fleshy body? Why would they even bother doing this? Who was he to them?

"No, you're definitely not an AI. Dr. Michel would be able to go over the specifics with you more than I ever could. I wasn't on the medical team, I'm on security – something that is suddenly sorely needed when before it seemed like a cake-walk post."

Just to accentuate Jacob's point more mechs choose that moment to spill out of the already cleared doorway. They two of them finished off the mechs, yet again, and Jacob moved to pat Garrus' arm.

"Look, I know you have questions but I'm not the one who can really answer them for you. I can, however, help you out of here. You help me and I'll take you to Dr. Michel for your answers. Desolace will want to see you as well."

Garrus really had little choice in the matter. Judging from the sounds of the explosions going on around them Garrus could easily conclude that this station was not going to last much longer under the assault and he really had no clue nor equipment to try and find his own way.

Shoving his confusion and hesitation aside he nodded and followed the dark-skinned human into the next fray.

Shootout after shootout, they made their way through the base. They found another man, a turian named Sidonis, who was injured and in need of medigel.

Garrus recognized the man for some reason, he couldn't really place where he would have seen him though.

Sidonis explained that Garrus had started to wake while still 'recuperating' and Sidonis had to administer more tranquilizers. Garrus must have had some residual memory of the occurrence, but it did little to soothe his mind about the man.

More fighting, more information. They worked for a group called Cerberus. He had no dealings with the group before even though they claimed to be active while he was still alive.

Still alive, a strange way to think about time frames. He didn't even know how long he had been 'dead'. From the way they were talking he could guess that it had been at least a year, if not longer.

What happened to Isa? Every time he asked the human, Jacob, deflected the answer by stating that Garrus would just have to ask the 'boss', Desolace. The name wrung familiar with Garrus, but he couldn't place that either.

He was growing more and more frustrated with every passing moment. Jacob claimed the ground was a "pro-human and turian peace group aimed at making the galaxy more accepting of new species." It sounded like varren shit, but Garrus wasn't about to say so out loud – not when the group was currently helping him. He could make solid decisions on them later, for now he just needed to surivive.

Finally they arrived at the doors to the escape shuttles. The door was locked, but Sidonis made quick work of the lock and hacked them through. When the door opened, a small human with short red hair was there as if waiting for them.

When her eyes fell to Sidonis her expression changed from surprised to angry in the blink of a moment. She unceremoniously raised her pistol and shot the turian to his left in the head. No warning, no questions, just death.

Garrus wanted to claim that she had acted rashly, he wanted to argue that such an action was not appropriate, but Jacob beat him to it. She said that Sidonis was a traitor to them, had started this whole attack on the station, and had even tried to kill her and Garrus.

What the fuck ever as far as Garrus was concerned. He just wanted off of this tin can and somewhere solitary where he could figure through all of this new information.  
He listened as Dr. Michel, as he now knew her, explained that they needed to leave as soon as possible and that Desolace and "The Illusive Man" would want a report as soon as they arrived at the next space station.

How many space stations did they have?

Garrus said very little throughout the ordeal, simply preferring to sit back, watch and assess the two remaining humans around him. Joint human and turian group, but only the humans had survived the coup. Well, the two humans and him – the apparent guest of honor.

Dr. Michel asked Garrus some very basic questions to see if he retained his memory while Jacob argued that he had been through enough and that his combat prowess was still intact. He answered her questions about Saren and Nihlus, about John Shepard and his Spectre candidacy. None of the questions were about Isabelle Shepard, which made him wonder if knowledge of their relationship had remained among Saren, John and Nihlus.

Dr. Michel cut off any questions he would be asking by telling him that she wasn't authorized to give him any more information and that Desolace would answer any questions he had when he met with him. This Desolace had damn well better answer his questions because his patience was running thin.

Hours later they finally arrived at the next, bigger, space station. The exited the shuttle and Garrus was brought to a waiting room.

Good thing he didn't feel like sleeping despite having just fought his way out of a space station under siege and sitting in a cramped shuttle for a few hours. He had slept enough and although he was cranky, he was perfectly awake.

After a few tense minutes, Dr. Michel announced that Desolace would see him now and directed him down a walkway.

Finally he was going to get the answers he demanded. He wanted to know how long he had been out, something Dr. Michel had neglected to answer, and he wanted to know where his friends, and his lover, were.

Had Jack Harper gotten ahold of Isa while he was incapacitated? Had she succeeded in freeing herself from the oppressive hand of her former mentor? What was she doing now? Had she… Moved on?  
He quickly moved away from that thought. He wouldn't blame her if she had moved on but there was no point in dwelling on it as it stood now.

He moved down the dark hallway and into the room at the end. Nothing but darkness. What kind of game were they playing at?!

He started to turn around to march out and knock some heads together to get his answers when the floor beneath him illuminated. He was enveloped in a migrating light that started at his feet and moved to his head and suddenly he found himself aware of a completely different place.

A silhouette of a turian over a backdrop of a red dwarf star was presented to him. He didn't talk at first, but simply scanned the area. He couldn't see much other than the single man and he cleared his throat. He made to move a bit closer, surprised to find that the turian and the room came deeper in to focus the closer he moved.

An interesting way to communicate.

"Vakarian, Dr. Michel tells me that you've made quite the recovery. Let me be the first to officially welcome you to the land of the living once again."

He hardly moved as he spoke, but gave off the air of self-importance. Garrus disliked this man instantly, but he would play their games for now.

"How long was I 'dead'?" He wasted no time asking the questions he needed answered.

Desolace let out a rough chuckle, "Not a shy one, are you? You were dead for approximately two years. You were in a coma for another year after that."

The total time hit him in the gut like a kick from an elcor. He was gone for three fucking years! Suddenly the need to know what happened to Isa and the others seemed much more daunting.

What did you say to someone who you were away from for three years? 'Hey I'm back!' seemed insufficient. Nonetheless, he was determined to try.

"Why did you bring me back?" It seemed like the most obvious question and the one he had no clue as to what the answer could be. Judging from what Dr. Michel had hinted at, this project of bringing him back from the dead was astronomically expensive and yet he saw no purpose in it.

Desolace took a bit longer to answer this question, probably deciding what to reveal and what to hold back. The pause did nothing to endear Desolace to Garrus, not that anything about this situation was endearing.

"You had a reputation for being able to sniff out answers out of impossible situations, you were also known as being particularly tenacious when needed. We need someone like that to help us. Entire colonies of both humans and turians have started to go missing. We need you to assemble a team and look into these disappearances."

Entire colonies missing would be a huge issue, but why him? Why not another spectre? The Counsel would take this very seriously.

"Why me? Wouldn't someone else want to look in to this?"

Desolace shook his head – less hesitation this time, "No. We tried the Counsel. The turian colonies that were missing were co-colonies with humans and the humans are not a Counsel priority. We need someone with your skills and abilities to look in to this. We are willing to finance you, of course."  
Well, he couldn't really argue with that. He was given a prime opportunity. He would agree, of course. His honor dictated that he help if he were able. But, he wouldn't just obey any order. That part of his upbringing had died long before he had followed it.

"I will help, but I choose my crew." Desolace nodded and added, "Yes, of course. But I insist Jacob and Dr. Michel be there." Garrus conceded that. He could always kill them if they became an issue.

"Now that that's settled. What are the whereabouts of Nihlus Kryik, Saren Arterius, John and Isabelle Shepard?" He put John and Isa together to remove any suspicion that he favored her. He decided quickly that giving this man leverage was not something he wanted to do.

"Saren and Nihlus are out in the terminus looking in to something or another for the Counsel. John Shepard is negotiating trade agreements between the elcor and the hanar for the Counsel – life as a spectre must be disappointing to him. As for Isabelle Shepard, she was arrested for desertion and murder not long after your death. She recently broke out of prison and has disappeared after going to Omega several months ago."

Isa went to prison? She broke out? Was this a part of Harper's plan? He couldn't believe that she had actually murdered anyone and the desertion was easy to explain – the Alliance had turned on her when she left with him.

He would find his own answers. "Forward everything you have on all of them to me. What am I going to travel in? Am I going to be based out of this station or what?"

He and Desolace discussed the finer points of their reluctant partnership for the better part of an hour. He was going to be given a ship and a small crew. He was going to be allowed to move as he pleased as long as he completed missions for Desolace and Cerberus.

Garrus agreed and the connection was cut, but not before his attention was drawn across the room to another figure. A human man lounging in a chair and smoking a cigarette. Garrus didn't get a good look at their observer before the connection was severed and he was left in the dark room alone.  
Interesting.

He promptly exited the room and walked back to the waiting area where Dr. Michel and Jacob were waiting. They were waiting for orders from him; it was a strange feeling to be ordering these two around like he actually had any authority over them. He knew that they would be relaying back his actions to their boss and he really couldn't give any less fucks about it.

They could tag along as he searched the galaxy for Isabelle Shepard.

They followed him on to his ship – the Siren – and took to their respective stations after giving him a tour. There was an AI piloting the ship which made him even more uncomfortable. There was a yeoman who looked strikingly like the good doctor and two engineers, a quarian named Kenn and a female turian named Kyrea.

He got strange feelings from all of the females on board. Dr. Michel had started to get entirely too close for comfort as she showed him around, the yeoman Kelly Chambers seemed to be insinuating a lot when she described her job duties and Kyrea was giving off enough sex hormones to alert the dead.

He wondered if the female heavy crew was meant as a "Gift". The idea made him shudder and he internally decided to treat all the woman as if they were men. He saw no need to whet his whistle just yet.

He needed to find Isa.

Kyrea's hormonal aura did nothing to stem his growing need to find the woman he considered his. She was his other half and he just hoped that she was still receptive to his advances. Spirits knew that he needed her now more than ever.

He set a course for Omega and made his way to his private cabin – alone. He tried to relax in the overly big cabin, read through his messages – all from Desloace or "Cerberus" operatives. He finally managed to go through the files he had Desolace forward him.

He glanced through the ones on Saren, Nihlus and John. They were all fine and operating freely, even collaborating regularly.

Isa's file, however, he pondered over a bit more obsessively. She had parted ways with Saren a week or so after he was listed as "Killed in Action". According to the video footage, she had been cornered by Alliance soldiers looking to cash in on her bounty and had killed them all without hesitation.

Then she waited. She waited to be hauled off to prison. He couldn't really make sense of it other than that she was trying to get caught, trying to remove "innocents" or family from being further injured in Jack Harper's mission to get her since he had already shown that he was more than willing to kill those she cared for.

In prison she started off with little to no file, but as the months progressed she started to accrue a reputation of sorts. She had killed some guys trying to rape another female inmate – Jack. No last name. The two reportedly were rather inseparable from that point on. She started going by the nickname Elle (Ell-ie).

They did the normal things people do in open-air prisons to survive. Killing other inmates, creating alliances. There were pictures of her as her time in prison passed by. Her hair grew longer, the makeup she wore grew darker. She acquired tattoos. Some were your standard prison fare, illustrations depicting battles and a pictorial resume of sorts. Some were merely decorative from what he could tell. A beautifully morbid display of flowers and painted skulls graced her upper right arm.

She seemed to grow harder as the years progressed and then he stumbled upon images of her after she had been checked in to the medical facility. A wound across her left cheek, running from just below her eye to her jaw. It was brutal but clean looking. He was annoyed that there was no information on how she had received it.

The last picture was of her just before she started a riot and her, Jack, and a few other prisoners all escaped. Her wound had healed and revealed a simple pink scar. She was smirking in the picture, as if she knew this was going to be the last one. Her hair was secured off to the side by some form of plaiting; what humans called a braid he recalled.

She looked so much the same and yet so different. She was harder, seemed less likely to smile than she had before. He wondered if her plan was working out like she had anticipated.

She broke out of the prison shortly after her photo update, taking out many guards and hijacking a small transport to head straight to Omega. It appeared that one of the inmates that escaped with her was a Zaeed Massani. Prior to his incarceration he was a mercenary, but had been rumored to be the creator of the gang the Blue Suns.

After landing on Omega all records of Isa – Elle and Jack end. Massani, however, purportedly retook control of the Suns from his former usurper and has been reigning the gang in to form a more controlled organization.

Garrus would bet his left testicle that Isa was still with Massani and had played a role in him regaining control of his organization. She was staying in the shadows, but her hand was definitely in this. To what end, though?

Sure, with the Suns on her side she could have the man power to move against Jack Harper and make a sizeable dent – but not the entire Systems Alliance. Though, to his knowledge her war was just with Jack Harper and possibly Admiral Hackett. If those two were her targets she could make their lives endlessly complicated by having the Suns working for her.

He didn't like her association with the Suns. In fact, everything in him that had inspired him to try for the Spectre's was revolting at the thought. But the soldier in him admired her resolve to take it this far, he admired the fact that she had thought of something so diabolical.

Why waste innocent lives when you can use criminals as your cannon fodder? He wouldn't delude himself into thinking that she thought of them all as meat shields, but he knew that she was fine involving them because they were criminals. They had already resigned themselves to hard lives due to their choices and this way she was not endangering innocent people.

It wasn't perfect, but he understood. He didn't like it, but he understood. Now he just needed to find her.

His first thought was to send a message to Saren and John, so he did. He would need allies and although he had a good idea who he wanted to recruit for his own team, he would appreciate the back up.

It didn't take long for Saren to agree to meet him on Omega, John stated that he would be there in a few days as soon as he could break away from the "challenges of being a diplomat". Garrus inserted his own sarcasm and mock-enthusiasm to the title of diplomat. He knew John was probably ready to shoot them all and sign the agreements himself.

He would try to convince his friend Mordin Solus to join him and then meet with Saren and John to discuss finding Isa. Mordin was a brilliant salarian scientist who had a penchant for violence. Garrus figured both of the scientist's specialties would be needed on his mission. That, and Mordin had a good understanding of the Sun's from his experience on Omega. His knowledge in that aspect would be highly desired as well.

Garrus sat back and allowed his mind to wander again. He had the beginnings of a plan and was well on his way to righting his life again. He suddenly felt very tired. He had done a lot since waking up from his three years of inactivity and had yet to really sleep.

He moved in to the bathroom to splash some water on his face before he went to bed. He caught the feint glow of cybernetics in the mirror before he went to lean over the sink.

He hadn't looked at himself in the mirror since waking and the sight that graced him took his breath away. His eyes were glowing, a subtle blue. Just like Isa… So he had ocular implants. Dr. Michel had stated that he had some bone replacement grafts of metal and had bone and skin weaves. His cheek also seemed to have some cybernetics peeking through his still-open wounds.

Creepy.

He felt his gut churn and immediately needed to evacuate his already empty stomach into the refuse bin. He now knew how Isa had felt all those years ago when he had found her after she had been altered by Harper. It was more disorienting than he had anticipated.

He found himself sitting on his bathroom floor for a long time before he was able to make himself move and fall into the bed.

He fell asleep to nightmares of Isa in prison, fighting for her life and the right to survive. He dreamt of death and screams, of betrayal.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: I just wanted to say thanks to all who have favorited, followed, and reviewed! I read every review and if you're logged in to an account I try to answer ASAP! I appreciate you all :)  
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**And a special call out to my wonderful Beta Icyfreezerpop for editing all of my chapters before they go out. Cthulhu knows I enjoy commas waaay too much. **

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_She was running and not for the first time. They were on her heels; she just needed to make it to the dividing wall and she could get out of reach._

_She needed Massani's loyalty; otherwise she wouldn't have even bothered with this whole bullshit. Fuck all with this entire "fuck with the enemy to please my perspective friend" prison ego stroking shit. She had attacked a man who was vying with Massani for control of the Blue Suns. It was all hypothetical control; neither could control shit while in prison._

_Massani had been a contact of hers while she was still a Corsair so she had a certain affinity for the bastard. Better the evil you know. She had agreed to get him out of prison when she escaped if he would pledge the Suns to her when she wanted to go against certain Alliance officer, but of course it was never that simple._

_There were obstacles in the way of her plan. First, she needed to remove the threat to Massani. Then she needed to organize a way out of prison. The best way was to create a diversion and then attack a weak point while there was a ship at port._

_They were on a prison planet, not like they could just fly off in to the sunset whenever they wanted. They needed to wait until a delivery was being made. It didn't matter if it were a provisions delivery or new prisoners. She preferred provisions because those transports were usually less heavily guarded, but she knew that between her and Jack they could take on whichever.  
After that she just needed to get Massani to Omega and then help him retake the Blue Suns. Child's play._

_All of that was void if she let Garcia's dogs get ahold of her. She was certain the rival gangleader-in-training was currently bleeding out as she fled. She made it messy; it was a message as much as a statement. Don't fuck with Elle._

_One of the men made a jump for her just as she went to round a corner. She spun as she felt the movement more than saw it. She quickly grabbed the side of the man's head and used her momentum to crush his skull into the wall. She felt the crunch of bone as she finished her spin in the same direction as she started._

_She didn't look back to see if her defense tactic was successful – she knew it was. He would at least be incapacitated. She rounded another corner and took a deep breath, increasing her speed another notch. She was in the home stretch._

_The complex was a maze of containers and make-shift cells. The prison was more of a general population dump. There were segments and sides, but it was all prisoner controlled. This was a fairly brutal prison by reputation and many of the inmates didn't live long enough to carry out their sentences._

_She just needed to get enough momentum to make the leap to the top of the wall and then she would be on home territory: Massani territory._

_Just as she went to leap up, she felt a body slam into her back and she was crushed against a wall. She screamed in rage and terror as she began to battle for control. She just needed to make it over the wall…_

Isabelle woke with a start, covered in sweat and with sheets tangled in her limbs. She gulped in the recycled air seeping in from the vents above. Just a nightmare, she was safe and free from that hell hole.

She was in her room in Massani's rundown, deserted space station. There were none of Garcia's men here.

She chanted to herself over and over again until her heart rate calmed back down to a manageable tempo. She kicked the sheets off of her bed and made her way to her bathroom, immediately leaning over the sink to splash cold water on her face.

She looked at herself critically in the mirror… She was so used to looking at the scar on her cheek that she hardly noticed it anymore… Except when she remembered how she had won it.

Prison had been about what she had expected. She wasn't expecting a cake-walk, but she knew that the best place to hide from Harper and to build up her plan was in plain sight. She knew Massani was in this prison compound and had made sure to commit just a severe enough crime to get herself sent here. She knew how the Alliance worked and she knew that this "punishment" would be the likely outcome.

It was a risk, she could have gotten sent elsewhere, but they had made such a show of capturing her and putting her on trial that she knew that the human audience would demand she go to the "hell planet". She had put enough criminals away in her time to know where people went for certain degrees of criminality anyways. The risk was worth it.

She had met up with Massani shortly after her anticlimactic deposit into the prison's main holding arena. They certainly didn't care about the welfare of their prisoners once they were out of sight. Out of sight, out of mind.

Massani had managed to smuggle out some messages to her prior to her arrival. Even the Hell Planet wasn't impenetrable nor perfectly sealed. He had agreed to help her if she helped him. She already had an idea of what he wanted and had weighed the positives and negatives. The positives obviously had outweighed any negative. All the negatives were weights on her own soul, she could deal with that.

Isabelle certainly did not need to be sitting here mulling over the past. Sure, she had her scars to bear from her experiences, some visible – she smirked as her eyes glanced to her scar on her face. That was a fight to remember.

She had barely got out alive, and certainly hadn't gotten out intact. At least not emotionally. It had taken her months to be able to sleep consistently and for more than a few cat naps here and there. It took even more months for her to be able to sleep without nightmares.

Obviously the nightmares weren't completely gone either.

Isabelle stood up more straight, looking over herself a bit more fully. She hardly recognized herself anymore. Sure, there were hints of the Alliance soldier that used to reside in this body – a gray standard issue under-armor tank top and a pair of serviceable underwear. But the rest of the casing? Tattoos galore on her back, right arm, and hips. Some for artistic purposes – influence of Jack – and some to ward off possible combatants. She had symbol on her back with stars for years served, she had two to Jack's ten. She had the drops for gang members killed, her artistic resume.

Her arm was a collage of sugar skulls (Dia de Los Muertos), birds, guns, stars and whatever else the artist put on there. She had a love for all of it and the prison artist had been particularly creative and talented. She was always impressed when she looked at her arm that something like that was a part of her body now.

She also noticed that her body was trimmer. Not necessarily due to a choice, she had to eat sparingly in prison and had to work out constantly to maintain a competitive edge against those trying to take her out. Her training had helped immensely, but she wasn't the only combat trained and tested person in there.

She looked at herself a few minutes longer before an unwanted and unbidden thought crossed over her mind. _What would Garrus think of me now?_ She shook her head in order to ward the thought off. He wouldn't be please, but he would probably understand if she explained. He always understood when she explained her reasoning.

Besides, it didn't matter what Garrus would think of her. He was dead because of her. Because of her association with him, her feelings. She had made damned sure that no feelings were ever present again. Jack had given her endless shit over the fact that Isabelle, or Elle as Jack liked to call her, never once got laid despite the multiple opportunities.

She just couldn't. It wasn't that she wasn't horny, but she didn't necessarily need another person to take that edge off. It seemed like she would be betraying Garrus to move on, even just physically, before she had avenged him.

Like he cared now, but she did. She could move on after she killed everyone who was responsible for Garrus' death. Until then, her nun-like life was her status quo. She preferred it this way.

She ran her fingers through her hair to straighten a bit before braiding it to the side and getting dressed for the day. She had business to attend to with Aria. She needed to be on her A-game.

She dressed quickly and efficiently in her pants, combat boots, shirt and jacket. She had let Jack help with the shopping so her pants showed off the outer sides of her thighs thanks to strategic slits, her shirt was backless other than her bra strap… Which matched the shirt. Her jacket was a simple leather combat jacket with straps to help keep her rolled up sleeves, well, up. The jacket and pants also had shoulder and leg armor built in so the outfit was functional as well as fashionable.

She slipped her gloves on, put her lower face mask in place and pulled her hood up before exiting her room. She was relatively safe in this wing of the space station as it was only for Massani's upper trusted officers – her and Jack, but she never took any chances. Last thing she needed was one of Massani's dancer whores to see her face and report her to the Alliance.

They couldn't take her at this point in the game, she was too well entrenched and had trained and assembled her own fighting elite; but she didn't want to give away her position just yet.

One year. She had been working on this for one solid year. Longer, if she were honest, but she was only able to get a fraction of her trainees off of that damned rock. She had to start training her strike team from scratch again but at least this time she wasn't their only trainer.

She walked briskly towards the loading dock, getting her shuttle ready for departure. She was sneaking out without Jack this time; she loved the woman to death, but she was entirely too unstable for dealing with the equally unstable Aria T'Loak. The last thing she needed was the two divas going at one another.

She was able to depart without a hitch, only getting an angry "go fuck yourself" message from Jack after she had left the vicinity. She chuckled as she closed the voice transmission. Jack would forgive her by the time she got back, she'd be bored out of her mind and looking for someone to talk into an early grave at about her sexcapades over the previous week.

Isabelle set the autopilot for Omega and sat back to relax. It was going to be a few hours before she docked with the station and she needed some time relax and read over Aria's mission request.  
She was going to be interrogating, with prejudice, a krogan scientist that was trying to blackmail Aria over something or another.

Wait… A krogan scientist? Huh, who knew there was such a thing? "Well color me surprised." She muttered to herself before reading to see if Aria had hinted at what exactly she was supposed to be torturing this man for or what he had on her.

Of course Aria was mum on the topic of what exactly the guy was blackmailing her over, but she included a lengthy dissertation over what she wanted Isabelle to find and how she wanted her to find it. She wanted to know who he has told of this information, where he found it, if he sold it then for how much, etc, etc, etc. and explicit torture over breaking Omega's number one rule.

"Don't fuck with Aria". Isabelle had a similar rule, it was easy to remember and the consequences were dire if you broke it.

Aria added a bonus request for him to wind up dead somewhere after she was done. Sure, easily enough done. The krogan signed his own death warrant by going against Aria. Hell, Isabelle wouldn't even court death that way.

She reclined her chair and laid back, staring at the passing space. She let her mind wander to better times, mandible smiles, angled bodies and blue facial markings.

Better times.

Isabelle woke twenty minutes before she arrived at Omega, prepping her weapons and her clearance codes. She strapped her twin machetes to her back and off she went.

She was expected, so her arrival was expedited unlike the other poor sods waiting for clearance to get on this rock. Aria had a tight hold on who or what was allowed on her rock. She allowed visitors to go pretty much unchecked as long as they were on known cattle cars – chartered transports.

Any merchandise cargo had to be inspected. Not for drugs or slaves or anything like that, but for anything unknown. An actual threat to Aria. Aria didn't give a shit about drugs, slave trades, or weapons dealing as long as no one brought a bomb or private security force into her domain.

Isabelle was escorted to the high queen of the shit by her right hand man, or batarian. Isabelle would have felt honored had she not known that the man was being punished for fucking up some minor detail of a drug transaction some days prior and this was a shit detail for him. Either way, she let her eyes wander as she was escorted to the high palace, or Afterlife as it was commonly referred.

It was the same old, same old here on Omega. People down on their luck trying to get by, minor or fledgling criminals trying to make a fast buck, major criminals racketeering and dabbling in all things malicious. Spectres trying to catch their targets.

Wait, Spectres?! Not just any Spectres, Nihlus and Saren. She stared at the pair in disbelief for half a second before she resumed her previous pace behind her escort. She made sure she went unnoticed by her former allies, but her mind was racing as she tried to figure out why they were here, if they were after her, or if she was just the recipient of some bad luck.

They would be going to see Aria as well, it was standard fare. Even if you were not owned by the self-proclaimed ruler of Omega, you were still expected to check in with her upon your arrival. Especially if you worked for the Counsel.

She just had to hope that they wouldn't see her or notice her. If they weren't here for her it was highly likely that she could sneak by without so much as a second glance. She was the first to see Aria as a guard kept the two Spectres were kept waiting with some bullshit over appointments. Probably a favor from Aria. Damnit, she hated owing that woman anything.

She would probably try to knock down her payment for this job as part of the payback for this favor. Shit.

By the time Isabelle's audience was granted she was in a foul mood, her brain having just played back all of the wonderful ways Aria could ask for favor repayment. She almost forgot to flip her voice changer on before greeting the damned self-righteous asari.

"Aria." She noted that her voice sounded more mechanical than human, but still hers. You just had to already know who was talking. It was sometimes the simplest changes that made the largest difference.

"Yes, Enforcer, I require your skills. I'm sure you've already looked over the job description, yes? Good. I expect this done within three days and started within the next five hours. Vard has a meeting with a potential buyer tonight and I want you to get to him before he can make it to his meeting, am I clear?"

Aria looked Isabelle over expectantly. Just her presence here meant that she had accepted the contract, so there was no need to go over the particulars. This new time frame didn't even sway her as she was already planning on going after the krogan immediately after leaving Afterlife.

She nodded to Aria's question before she could grow impatient and demand an actual conversation out of Isabelle. Isabelle liked Aria overall, but as Isabelle Shepard. The Enforcer had no time for such trivial things as friends and conversations. Aria had allowed Massani to have the Blue Suns operate on Omega for the price of her cooperation in certain situations. Moreover, Aria had promised her own forces for Isabelle, or the Enforcer, when she moved against the Alliance. She had said she "wanted in on the fun". Isabelle could only surmise that Aria had her own revenge planned and it was a convenient alliance of sorts.

Isabelle really didn't give a damn as to why Aria had wanted to join her little party, she just cared about the numbers. Aria's men would be good fighters in general and that was more than enough assurance that they would at least be useful.

Leaving Afterlife, Isabelle did a quick glance around for Saren and Nihlus and couldn't spot them. They had probably been herded through another entrance separate from the one she was ushered out of. Clever.

She was so absorbed in thinking about where the two turians were that she nearly took another one out. She bumped into a hard body and quickly jumped back. She looked up into a masked face. Odd, normally people didn't walk around in enclosed and aerated stations in full battle-rattle.

She quickly apologized and moved away from the place. She needed to get in to the lower apartment wards so that she could scout out her target. She only had five hours to find a suitable space to torture the krogan, capture him and then get him there.

The torture room and capture were the easy parts, it was moving him that would be hard. Krogan weighed more than they looked and they looked like they weighed a ton. She quickly made contact with an elcor shopkeeper and made plans to buy some gear to build a make-shift hover platform. It would be shoddy work at best and would probably only last the one move.

Hell, the fucking thing would probably break on the way and then she'd have to drag the asshole back to her hideout by herself. She could do it, she just didn't want to. Her back would ache for a week and her knees would burn. She wasn't adverse to physical labor, obviously, but hauling a krogan was a goddamn Olympic feat.

She tested the transport with some cargo from the hold. It bounced a few times before finally getting the appropriate amount of thrust to support the weight.

It would probably fail 100 yards from the door. She just knew it. But any distance the damn thing aided her, the better.

She looked over her set up in the hold she had chosen to do the deed. It was far away from any of the occupied areas and had limited exit and entrance points. She could successfully make the man sing opera and no one would hear him.

Now, to go shopping for a krogan scientist.


	9. Chapter 9

The slender form hit him harder than he would have thought possible. Garrus let out a grunt as the small human quickly apologized and kept on her trajectory prior to running in to him.

He felt the urge to watch her go, the pull something he couldn't explain. He just felt like he needed to know where she went, but it passed as soon as she was out of sight.

Out of sight, out of mind.

He was quickly brought back to the goal at hand when Dr. Michel, or Chloe as she demanded he refer to her, touched his arm. He wanted to immediately shake her off but held back. He was being unnecessarily rough and rude to her. He had caught himself about to lash out at her on more than one occasion.

It wasn't her fault that he was itching in his own skin, his body demanding release of either the violent or sexual kind. She knew, of course. She had made her own interest abundantly clear, hell, she had even reluctantly offered up some of the other female crew.

He knew they were there to distract him. He had politely declined at first, then more rudely as the subject was continually broached. No one but Isa would do, even if she no longer called herself that.

Spirits, at this point he didn't care if she was the devil-spirit herself incarnate, he just needed her.

He grunted again and stalked forward. Saren had said they could meet in a private room in Afterlife. Saren had an agreement, an understanding, with Aria T'Loak. They had a business-like relationship that allowed Saren and Aria to continue about business as usual as long as they informed each other of their presence.

They both reserved the right to negate the agreement given extenuating circumstances, but said circumstances had yet to come up. It was a mutually beneficial pact that allowed Saren to operate on Omega with no real restrictions.

One of the perks was Aria allowing private, unsupervised, use of her private rooms. The guards had been informed of his arrival if his ease in gaining access to Afterlife was any indication. He was directed by one of Aria's private guard to the room in question.

He inhaled deeply as he worked his way through the gyrating crowd, avoiding drinks and elbows as he focused in on the door. He had reached out to Saren for this meeting and he hadn't had a second thought on it, but now that he was actually here and about to see his old mentor and friend he was overwhelmed with nervousness.

What would they think of him? Would they believe him that he was actually him? He wasn't even sure he believed he was still himself after everything was said and done.

One last deep inhale before he hit the opening mechanism and the door opened with an inaudible woosh. He walked in to the room with Chloe a step behind him. The door closed immediately after she stepped through and he was greeted with darkness.

The seconds ticked by as he stared at the figure in the corner, his helmet visor reading the signals his eyes weren't able to pick up on their own. He didn't turn on the night vision because he didn't really need it. He could see Saren and he was sure Saren knew he was here.

This was Saren's move, Garrus was letting ownership of this meeting go to him in order to show respect. He also wanted Saren to know that he wasn't going to challenge or attack him. He wanted Saren to know that he was still the recruit who had worked with him for months before.  
Three years before.

A few deep and controlled breaths later Saren waved his hand and the lights came on. Chloe gasped beside Garrus as she got a good look at the especially intimidating turian in front of them. Garrus welcomed the sight, but Chloe apparently had not prepared herself for all that was Saren Arterius.

Saren sighed, a show of impatience, as he stared humorlessly at Garrus. "Are you going to take the damned helmet off and sit down, or are you going to stand there forever?"

The knot that was growing in his chest eased a little at the tone in Saren's voice. It was impatient but also welcoming. Well, as welcoming as Saren generally was.

Garrus moved to remove the clasps on his helmet and slid it off of his head. He managed to get his helmet off and keep his head down at the same time. He kept his head down as he walked over to the table and sat down.

It was uncharacteristic of him to be so demure, but he was concerned for how this meeting would go down. This was the first person who knew him before that he was seeing again. Saren's reaction meant a lot to him.

When Garrus did finally lift his head and make eye contact with his friend Saren's sudden intake of breath was telling. Garrus winced at first, but then Saren reached over and tilted Garrus' face side to side.

"I had wondered… How they would have done it." Saren muttered as if to himself. Garrus raised a browplate in silent question.

How they would do what? Bring him back? How would Saren have had time to really contemplate that?

Saren leaned back and sighed, "Desolace is my brother. He sent me notification of your… Revival, a few weeks ago. I didn't really believe it until you contacted me."

Garrus digested that news for a minute. So Saren and Desolace were related, he wondered if that meant he could trust Desolace but Saren raised his hand and stopped that thought at the pass.

"I wouldn't trust him worth shit, so don't get any ideas there. But we do share a mother and a clan name, that's about it."

Garrus nodded at that, Saren's opinion solidifying his own. Chloe made a disgruntled noise next to Garrus and he was forced to remember she was here.

"This one," he signaled to Chloe, "Is Chloe, she works for him and also was the head doctor on my reconstruction." Spirits saying that word in relation to himself was weird. He wasn't sure he'd ever get used to it.

"Do you trust her?" Saren asked as he sipped his drink. Garrus knew the unspoken question, should we kill her? Garrus shrugged a bit and glanced at the tense human, "She hasn't given me any reason not to, yet."

It wasn't a vote of unwavering trust and acceptance, but it was enough for Saren to continue. Garrus was uneasy giving Chloe this much information about his interests, but he needed to know if he could trust her and he needed to find Isa as soon as possible. It would be faster with Chloe's help.

"Well then, I'll get right in to it then. John and Nihlus are upstairs with Aria, inquiring into Isa's whereabouts since Isa did a lot of work around Aria when she was working undercover. From what I gather there isn't much. As far as Massani's right hand, the Enforcer, she's here on Omega completing a favor for Aria. She'll be our next stop after we're done here."

Garrus nodded and leaned heavily on the table. His tension was returning ten-fold the more he was becoming at ease around Saren. It was a tradeoff, nerves for tension.

"Why the hell did you guys let Isa rot in prison for so long?" He could barely keep the growl out of his voice, as it was his subvocals were screaming his outrage.

Saren had the good sense to look ashamed when the accusation of abandonment hung in the air between them.

"It was her choice to go, you know that as well as I. She did what she did for a reason and spirits know what the hell she was thinking. Unfortunately for her the Terminus systems seemed to go insane around the same time. The fact of the matter is that we were just too damned busy. John had some contact with her while she was incarcerated and according to him she didn't want a bloody rescue. She was where she wanted to be just like she's out now – like she wants to be. You know Isa as well as any of us. She's got a plan and she's working it. We're just no longer in the loop and you should know why."

The returning question was out of Garrus' maw before his brain could reason the answer out on its' own. "Why is that, exactly?" He cringed as the final word left his mouth and Saren saw the realization spark in his eyes immediately after he asked, but chose to answer anyways. "Because she didn't want to lose anyone else."

Garrus felt his gut drop in an unwelcome and not unfamiliar feeling. He had been right about her motivations but that did little to quell the dread growing in him.

He had been the catalyst to her decision to drop the straight and narrow and delve directly into the filth of the underworld.

Before they could continue their current discussion the door swooshed open once more. Nihlus and John walked in and paused half a second to take in their newest guests. Nihlus wasted no time walking over to Garrus and patting him on the shoulder and John followed suit. "Good to see you" and "Glad you're back"'s were said all around and then everyone hunkered down to get right to business.

All in all it was anticlimactic and for that Garrus was grateful. He didn't want some big show from them that he was back. It let him pretend he hadn't died and instead had just gone on vacation – a three year vacation.

John piped up first, "Well Aria is of the same thought that we are. She thinks the Enforcer is Isa or at least close to her. She said their mannerisms are similar and the blue bitch would know – she worked with Isa long enough."

Nihlus nodded the entire time, "The only thing that makes me hesitate on saying that she is for sure the Enforcer is the job the Enforcer just undertook from Aria. A murder for hire of someone who's blackmailing Aria. Isa was never the assassin type."

Garrus threw in his own opinion, not checking the anger obviously present in his voice, "That was before she got herself shipped off to prison and had spirits know what happen to her there."

The all stared at the table for a bit before Chloe finally broke her confused silence, "We are talking about Isabelle Shepard right? I'm sorry if your friend is missing, Garrus, but what does this criminal have to do with your mission?" She made sure to throw him a pointed look when she reminded him of his mission and suddenly he felt this was the perfect moment to inform the good, over-reaching doctor of just how good for his mission finding her was.

"Isabelle Shepard is critical to my mission. She is the only reason I'm glad you people rebuilt me and I'll tell you right now that I'm not doing shit for you or your boss until I find her. She's my mate and I'm not doing fuck all until I find her." He remained calm throughout his declaration and somehow he felt that had made his statement even more poignant.

Chloe immediately blanched and seemed to shrink in on herself, "It was never mentioned in your files that you were attached." She spoke the last word with such disgust that Garrus almost laughed. He would have felt sorry for the woman had he not made it explicitly clear that he was not interested in the slightest.

"I wasn't, not officially, but that's something I intend to correct." He looked at John when he spoke, silently seeking the older brother's approval. Approval that seemed abundant in the smirk and nod John gave him instantly.

The easy camaraderie and friendship was something Garrus had desperately needed. On his ship it was stiff salutes and "yes sir", or women trying to get him to take them to bed. Here it was what he needed, craved, the normalcy of his old teammates.

Emboldened by the fact that he was not currently _officially_ attached, Chloe smiled softly, "What if you can't find her? It seems like she really doesn't want to be found."

He really felt like tipping her chair and dumping her on her ass and somehow managed to restrained himself before Nihlus, ever the diplomat, interrupted and changed the subject. "Anyways, the Enforcer will probably be on Omega for a few days Aria said so we have limited time to find her and question her. After some prodding John was able to get Aria to give us a general location for where the Enforcer is operating at the moment. We'll break into two teams and check the area on a grid pattern."

The spent the next few hours plotting their moves while Chloe tried to make herself useful by adding her own limited tactical expertise to the discussion, surprising them all. By the time the meeting was broken up, she had successfully made herself a part of the plot and Garrus didn't know whether to thank her for her enthusiasm or to be concerned for her apparent interest.

* * *

As she had anticipated, her makeshift trolly had collapsed about ten feet to the door of her lair. She spent the next ten minutes hoisting the disabled krogan on to her back and slowly making her way to the door, all the while thinking of what a fun word "lair" was and why she liked using it to describe her various rooms.

She was distracting herself from the fact that with every labored step she felt her spine compress in unnatural ways.

Finally she was able to dump the krogan on the ground and got him chained to the wall with reinforced chains and anchors. He was going to be too doped up to be at full strength and she wasn't too worried about his strength returning before she had managed to start to work on him.

She took a minute to stretch and curse the size and mass of krogans while she walked around the room and inventoried her surgical tools to ensure she didn't forget anything.

Nope, she had everything she needed to make a krogan cry to his broodmother's mother. She slapped her hands together and turned back to her stirring friend.

Prison had given her a taste for this, not that she'd ever say that out loud to anyone but Jack. She had pretended to still have morals for her first few months in prison, but after multiple attempts on both her and Jack's life… and attempted rapes, she lost the need to be "moral". Instead she did what she had to do and sometimes even what she liked to do.

She liked to lead people on chases, she liked to make evil people scream, and she liked to be the one in control. Maybe that was the crux in everything. She wanted to be in control and situations like this gave her control in abundance.

She pondered that thought for a moment as the krogan came to. Vard, he had a name, she needed to remember it. It made her more personable, more likeable and possibly empathetic towards him. Warfare psych at its' finest.

"Vard darling," She said as she crouched in front of him and patted his cheek, "come now, you've slept enough. Wakey wakey!"

For emphasis she slapped him in the face a bit harder than necessary. True to all krogan, he woke with a start and a yell. He lunged forward against his chains until he could reach no further and only then did he look around.

Isabelle had anticipated this and stayed out of reach. She really hadn't given him a whole lot of room for play on purpose. He couldn't get the momentum he needed to break his chains and she could antagonize him from a relatively safe distance until he was too weak to pose a threat.

"Human, who do you think you are!? Release me!" He bellowed, trying to make his voice carry to solicit help. He was on Omega, who did he really think would help?

"I am Aria's hand, here to have a chat. Apparently you've been a bad, bad boy and I'm here to decide just how bad."

She stood and walked over to her workbench, her hand gliding over her tools as she kept one eye on her target.

He laughed low and menacingly. It sent a thrill up her spine, not of fear but of exhilaration. He would not break easily.

"So Aria sent a human to interrogate me? Does she think me so weak? I will tell you nothing, woman." He seemed content with that and sat himself down, looking bored almost.

Isa just smiled to herself and grabbed a pick. She wasn't going to bother with buildup on this one.

"Oh you'll tell me. When I'm done with you I'll know everything about you."

It must have been something in her eye because as she turned he tensed. Not as stupid as she initially thought. This still might take some time.

She approached him slowly, gauging his reactions to each of her steps. He tried to rush her again as she got close, only to be stopped by the chains on his body.

In the same smooth motion she shoved the pick into the crease between his carapace and forehead, eliciting a blood curdling scream from his throat.

* * *

Hours later, Isa had her answers – and a dead krogan. She put her hands on her hips and surveyed the mess before her. She had decapitated him in the end – a personal request from Aria. Not that she minded after learning this damned thing's life story. He was about as innocent as anyone who decides to go against Aria usually is.

He had a penchant for experimenting on children and she shuddered recalling a particularly detailed account of one of his experiments. It only solidified Isa's initial thought that he had a death wish.

She _had_ actually started to feel bad for him, he had played up his innocence for quite a while and Isabelle had started to think he might have just been that dumb.

Nope, he was just another asshole looking to get more of the universal pie. Isabelle should have known better, Aria was a bitch, but she didn't order deaths like this unless she thought the person worthy. And idiots who were good yet simply stupid usually didn't qualify for something like this.

As it came down to it, he had found out that Aria had a daughter stashed somewhere, though he had no idea where or what her name was. Just the fact that Aria had family would be a huge blow to her highness' security, so Isa could understand wanting this to remain unknown.

The fact that he had told her at all was a way to bring her in to his plight, that she would be the next target. Even had that not been the case, she was not going to tell anyone. She was good keeping that knowledge close to her chest and quiet. She didn't need to make an enemy of Omega.

As it was the krogan hadn't told a soul yet about his information. He had a huge buyer – that Isa had impersonated at first – and that was to be the first sale.

She sighed as she cleaned and packed her tools. She threw the head in to a sack and made sure any signs of her presence were quickly scrubbed from the room with her drone.

She left the room, blending in with the shadows until she got to a major thoroughfare and easily blended in with the crowd. Many were holding bags and boxes as they moved to peddle their wares or move on to or off of the station.

She easily made her way back in to Afterlife through a back entry and met with Grizz, Aria's turian bodyguard, at their agreed upon meeting place.

He kept her waiting and she was quickly becoming suspicious and uncomfortable.

* * *

Nihlus had been the first to find the blood soaked room, and soon all five hunters were gathered in the dark and messy room. In the center was a decapitated krogan body chained to a wall, the head nowhere in sight.

The all took in the sight, Chloe even excusing herself quickly to relieve the contents of her stomach. Saren was the first to break the stunned silence.

"She must be on her way back to Afterlife now, if we hurry we can catch her before she leaves." His voice was calm as ever and Garrus doubted this was the worst he had seen.

"Are we even sure we want to find this Enforcer?" Chloe piped in from the doorway. She wasn't entering the room again, the metallic smell of old death too much for her.

"Yes." Garrus, Nihlus, Saren and John all said in unison as they turned to leave. There was nothing to be found here. Anyone professional enough to do that to a living krogan would have wiped the room before leaving, it was a waste of time to try and find any evidence and in that time they could miss their target.

Just as they were getting close, John received a message from Aria informing them that their Enforcer was in the alley under Afterlife, meeting with her agent. She had held up her end of the bargain.

Carefully, they entered the alley. The moved slowly and quietly up behind the Enforcer. As they grew close, Nihlus prepped a net-bomb to capture her. It was crude, but efficient. Unfortunately they were blown when Chloe tripped, falling hard and announcing their presence.

Quickly the Enforcer turned and Garrus got a good look at her – it was the woman who had bumped in to him a few days before. In forty-eight hours she had captured, tortured, and killed a krogan. She was definitely not what she seemed.

He caught her scathing comment to Aria's henchman "Betrayers!" before she hurled a sack at them down the narrow hallway. She slammed past Grizz and booked it in the opposite direction.

As the sack collided with Garrus he was thrown back into the rest of his team, the weight of the sack highly disproportionate to the force in which she was able to throw it. She was no normal human.

As the sack came to a rolling stop and the team was able to regain their footing, the head rolled from the sack.

They looked amongst each other for a split second before taking off after the woman. The entire ordeal only took a few seconds, but she had a good head start on them and John was eventually left in the dust and Chloe was left behind from the get-go.

She moved faster than a regular human, darting in and out of the crowds with practiced speed. Even Nihlus and Saren were having a hard time gaining on her as she hit a straight away out of the front doors.

Aria had apparently done them enough favors by telling them where she was and was not locking down Afterlife to help them. They had reached the extension of her good graces.

Garrus found himself gaining on the woman now that they weren't dodging chairs and people. She was heading directly to the docking bays and for a quick and final escape. He couldn't allow that.

* * *

Isabelle was furious. No, furious did not describe just how angry she was. Aria had betrayed her, to her own friends. Not that they knew that, but they were all spectres and bound by counsel law to take her in for this.

There had been five, but she only really saw Saren and Nihlus. She thought she saw her brother as well as two others, but she was so focused on getting the fuck out that she didn't waste the time analyzing her ambushers.

Worse, one was gaining on her. She could hear his heavy footfalls behind her. She had been working on her speed and endurance for a while now and had managed to outrun just about everyone in the suns who would indulge her.

This person, turian judging from the weight of the footfalls, was not normal.

She risked one glance backwards and saw that he was gaining on her. She needed to get to the docking bay and book it to the nearest relay. She would charge Aria extra for this and the bitch had better pay.

When she was within sight of the bay she was parked at she kicked it up a notch. The growl behind her told her that her pursuer was still there and not pleased by her final push to the finish. Well he could just fuck off.

She just needed to get there, fifty yards if that!

She heard him just behind her, she was almost within arm's reach. She learned the lesson that "almost within reach" is entirely too close already. Without hesitation she spun and reached for some netted pallets to their left, dragging them right and toppling the base of the large stack.

The resulting avalanche not only took out her stalker, but prevented an easy recovery to chase after her.

She quickly bridged the last few yards to her ship and quickly started the launch process. She was already disembarking when she saw her would-be captor standing in the docking bay and watching her pull away.

It was then that she got a damned good look at him and her heart stuttered.

It was Garrus… No, she held his dead body in her arms. It couldn't be him. It was a Garrus look-a-like. It was a goddamn trick. It had to be!

She went from angry to shocked to furious in a single heartbeat. She would kill the imposter and then murder Harper for daring something so brazen. He was the only one who could have pulled something like this.


	10. Chapter 10

She was just so angry. It had railed at her the entire trip back to base. The idea that Harper would create a clone – because really, who else would do it and what else could it be? A clone of Garrus, the one person who's death had pushed her over the deep end.

She wouldn't fall for it, she damned well wouldn't fall for it.

Hell.

She walked off the ship in a zombie like trance. She acknowledged those around but got through the conversations as quickly as possible.

Her emotions were catching up with her, these past three years finally creeping up with her.

She chose the quickest route to her room, avoiding any further conversations as she felt her iron will start to crumble.

She barely made through the doors before her knees buckled. She had enough good sense to lock the door before the sobs finally came forth.

Alone, leaned against the door with her legs askew, she let her grief and stress pour out in gallons from her eyes.

At some point she had pulled down her mask to allow herself to breathe better, the mask becoming soggy from her tears.

Resting her head back against the door, her eyes focused on nothing as she remembered the face watching her leave Omega.

The same blue markings, the defiant posture… Scars to match the deadly injuries.

She shuddered at the memory of limp, heavy limbs as she pulled the body against her. Warm blue blood crawling over her suit and through her hands. The smell of death permeating her being as she tried to will her love back to life.

It was a bad dream, it was all a bad dream. It wasn't Garrus who had been chasing her on Omega, it was a poor substitute.

It was Harper's substitute. He was the only one who would gain anything from bringing a Garrus look-a-like around. He was the bait. Once upon a time she might have fallen for it, but not now. She was not that naïve anymore.

Isabelle wasn't allowed to wallow in her self-pity and memories for too long. People started knocking, demanding to know what was going on, why she hadn't checked in, and so on. It was Jack and Massani, alternating at first and then together.

She just wanted some damned time to herself, to collect herself. She knew that was wishful thinking. She allowed herself one more shuddering deep breath before she started to pull herself back together.

She stood, swapped out her mask for a clean one, fixed her makeup and put her strong face back on.  
She could deal with this. She always dealt with it in her own way.

She opened her door to two very concerned looking friends.

They were her friends, she could admit that to herself. Her and Jack had very different pasts, very different upbringings, but they had become close. Massani had taken Isabelle under his wing as she explained her plan to him and he promised to help.

They had always had a good working relationship, she and Massani, when she was with the Alliance, joking and taunting each other rather harmlessly given the usually severe circumstances. When he had heard about what had happened to her, what she had done, he had sought her out at the prison.

He wanted to see if his old "rival" was still there. He had gotten more than he had bargained for when he found her.

She had unloaded her issues on top of the grungy, beat up old mercenary, and in return he had just hugged her.

She didn't realize how much she needed a hug. Then he had asked what he needed of her in the same sentence where he was promising to help her. She knew he was using her emotional state to garner help for himself, but she was doing the same.

It was mutually beneficial so she never questioned it further.

Jack started railing in to her first, "Why the hell did you leave me here? And why the fuck did you just zombie-walk back to your room. I heard something on this side of the door that was too pussy for someone like you and I'm not going to even put it in to words."

Massani cut to the chase as well, "Omega didn't go as planned?"

She sighed and allowed a slight slump in her shoulders to show before she glanced around to make sure they were alone.

These two knew already, thanks to nightmares and circumstance.

"The job was as described, but Aria forgot to mention the part where she sold me out to Saren and Nihlus at the end. They had others with them, John, I think, and two others. One looked like Garrus… Harper's work, no doubt."

Jack let out a colorful string of explatives and Massani just closed his fist. Before they could say anything Isabelle raised her hand. "I'm fine, I promise. It was just a shock and a bit too close to home. It won't be an issue."

Massani looked over her with a critical eye for a moment before speaking, "If she ousted you early enough, they may have tracked you. I'll have the ship scanned."

She nodded and they started to walk to the main port for the station.

It only took a few moments for the station to shudder and explosions to ring out.

"Shit, I don't think that scan will be necessary." She mused as they spared one more glance at each other and prepped for a rough night.

Rushing to get information from the lookouts and to scramble whatever forces they had, they moved into a well-practiced rhythm.

They were ready for something like this, it came with the territory. She did hope that their advance scouts had gotten word back to the quick response team, but judging from the lack of word to them she doubted it.

Every plan had its' flaw and hers had been allowing the goddamn scouts to hire non-gang mercenaries.

Minutes turned into a half an hour and a half an hour turned into a few hours. Their unwanted guests were making a hard push for the station, but weren't outright destroying it. Surprising until you really thought about it.

They wanted the inhabitants alive – at least an inhabitant.

She caught a glimpse of a symbol on a few of the uniforms of the ground teams that were slowly making their rounds on the base, a weird circle-like shape with an arm on each side. It reminded her of the screaming man paintings she had seen as a kid, his hands holding each side of his face.

She made a mental note to figure out what the symbol meant, but for now they were being overrun.  
Massani had let the internal alarm system final start blaring throughout the station – the universal sign for get the fuck out now.

The final warning in their best laid plans.

She would have to grill any of the surviving lookouts on why the fuck this failed so epically.  
Couldn't trust anyone to get the job done right unless their hands were fucking held.

Isabelle started booking it to the rendezvous point where Massani and Jack would be waiting. She had attackers quick on her heels, but this was her home turf. She had jogged these halls regularly and knew all of the shortcuts.

She managed to have a good lead as she turned the final corner and stepped onto the ship just as gun shots started to ping off the metal around her. She turned and let her biotics flash over her as she let out on singular shockwave into the hall as they pulled away and the doors shut.

They'd regroup at the next base and form a new plan of action.

This would not get her down, this would only add to her list of things to be pissed about.

* * *

Garrus was furious that the Enforcer had gotten out of their grasp. He had only missed her by a few feet, and then she had brought that tower of shit down on him.

He had to admire her quick thinking, even if it just ruined his chances of catching her.

He watched the ship leave orbit and turned to meet back up with the group. Hopefully they had a plan B.

He met back up with Saren and the others in Afterlife, walking up behind an angry John interrogating Aria about the Enforcer's quick escape.

"I said I would get you to her, not that I would give her to you. So she slipped past your man, not my problem. I held up my end of the bargain, if you didn't prepare for this inevitability than that's on you."

The conversation was obviously over because Aria's guards quickly moved to block her from sight and usher them out of the VIP lounge.

Once out of ear shot, and out of Afterlife, Garrus finally felt comfortable discussing their options.  
"So, what do we do now?" He ground out.

"I managed to bribe a dock worker to tell me which ship was hers, they wouldn't disable it, but I was able to get a tracker on it. I'll forward the code to your omnitool. Garrus, we should go to our ships and settle on a plan of action from there." Nihlus said while looked at Saren for confirmation.

It wasn't a bad plan, go to the ships, leave and then follow the coordinates to the Enforcer. It was probably Blue Suns central, but they could fly under a banner of peace and go from there.

It was a flimsy plan, but it would have to do. If it came down to it they could infiltrate the Suns… Well, John and Garrus could, possibly Nihlus if he changed up his clan markings. Saren were too well known, too famous for his publicized missions.

He nodded his agreement and they went their separate ways. Chloe was quick on his heels, silently. He was thankful that she had chosen this moment to be quiet and not ask him how he was doing.

It was pretty damned apparent how he was doing.

He stalked to the ship and the moment they were on he gave the order to disembark. Chloe moved on to her quarters without another word, her mind obviously on something else.

He didn't question it. Instead he went out into free space and waited for the go ahead from Saren and John's ships.

They would find this Enforcer and he would get his damned answers.

He stalked his way up to his private quarters, throwing his gear off as the door closed behind him.

He needed to either hit something or fuck something – hard. He was going out of his mind. He should have asked Saren or Nihlus for some sparring before they parted ways, but there really wasn't time for it.

Instead, he stalked over to his desk and planted himself there. Reading over reports about the colonies, reading over reports about Isabelle Shepard sightings… Just reading.

He was so lost in his thoughts that suddenly the overwhelming scent of woman seeped through his pores. It was wrapping him up, the lust driving him in to an unseeing haze.

He felt hands on his shoulders, breath on his neck.

He growled deep, his motions becoming completely automatic. He turned and stood all in one motion, thrusting the willing woman against the wall.

He buried his face against her neck, his mandibles stroking the soft hide there. He was groping her, his hands on her waist, behind her fringe…

Fringe was all wrong, it was no what he wanted to feel! He wanted hair and velvet skin. He wanted the smell of Jasmine and Vanilla, not mechanical lubrication oil and dirt.

He pushed himself back, hard, away from the woman. He was gasping for breath, the force of his need making the denial of that need harder than he would have liked.

"Get. Out." He ground, the growl turning from lustful to angry. He didn't want to mate with her, however superficial an act it would be.

She moved to speak and his growl intensified. She gave him a disdainful once over before turning on heel and flaunting her way out of his cabin.

After taking a few moments to collect himself, he stomped over to the door and locked it – barring entry from any other women looking to take advantage of his situation.

He was sure they were all versed on turian physiology, they all knew that he needed to rut or fight.

There were no men on this ship that he could unleash on, he wouldn't put Kenn through that, and none of the women seemed particularly combat trained. At least not in the hand to hand tactics he would need to use to work out this level of tension.

He wouldn't risk their lives just for him to relieve his stress.

He wasn't sure he had ever heard of a turian being this bad off while not being able to fuck or fight. He certainly had never had it this bad before. It usually wasn't this intense of a need.

That wasn't to say that he had never been hard up before, but it was never to the point where he would be so overcome with it that he would just jump at the earliest chance.

He ended up doing some calisthenics, working his muscles by holding difficult positions and using his body weight as resistance, then he tried to move on to trying to read.

It wasn't helping.

He ended up browsing the extranet for a few hours, researching extreme responses like this, until he got the message from Saren and John.

It was time to go.

He changed course for the heading provided and just waited.

He was prepped and ready to go long before they arrived at the coordinates for the Enforcer's ship.  
He was, however, not ready for the scene that greeted them.

The space station, or at least that's what he thought it was, was completely in ruins. Their ships bumping debris away as they pulled in closer.

"Shit." He heard John say over the radio. Saren and Nihlus muttered similar curses. Garrus just slumped.

This was getting beyond ridiculous. Every turn he was hit with a wall, blocking his progress.

He noticed something, however, in the debris. A Blue Suns' emblazoned ship.

"There could be something on these Suns' ships floating around. Coordinates to a rendezvous point or something. I doubt this was their only base of operations." He hated the hopeful tone invading his speech.

He was grasping at straws and he knew it.

"That's not a bad idea. We'll all break in to our own groups and search the ships that aren't floating swiss cheese and pick apart any information that we find." John sounded enthusiastic and that gave Garrus hope that maybe he wasn't hanging on to a stupid idea.

Though he had no idea what "swiss cheese" was, he assumed it was something filled with a lot of holes.  
They all agreed and chose different sections of the debris field, agreeing to call out whenever they found something useful.

He prepped his team, Chloe and the quarian engineer Kenn. He found he genuinely liked Kenn the few times he had talked to him, and quarians were always resourceful.

They picked through three or four ships before finding one with anything even remotely useful. It seemed something innocuous at first, but the more he looked at the little piece of paper with gibberish on it the more it seemed to be something right up Isa's alley.

"The planet of water and paradise, amidst the storms that rage the sea, the place to rest and sleep will be."

"Spirits damned riddles. This might be something." Hell, it could be nothing, Garrus thought after he spoke.

They all nodded and made their way back to the ship, he sent out a message informing the group of what he found and they agreed to meet on Saren's ship to discuss it.

It seemed to be the only possible clue they had found among them. Apparently his wreckage's crew needed a reminder while the rest didn't. He thanked the spirits for little favors.

He left his "team" behind and entered into the safety of Saren's ship.

He felt safer on Saren's ship – less under scrutiny, less watched.

He brought out the handwritten note and laid it on the table.

"This is all we have, it seems to be a riddle about a planet. I suspect it's where they're secondary hideout is."

He sounded a lot more confident than he actually felt. It was surreal to have to be hunting for people by riddled notes left in damaged ships.

Spirits he felt like those treasure hunters always glorified in human vids. Follow the clues to get to the damned treasure.

The mulled over possible planets for a few hours, each planet being knocked out of the pool due to not meeting all of the apparent criteria.

The thing that was really throwing them was the part about raging storms on paradise planet. All the paradise planets were pretty much temperate in storms, the storming planets were overgrown hives.

Finally John perked up, "Virmire!" he announced excitedly. "It storms over the ocean constantly, but has supposedly nice beaches. There isn't a whole lot of land, but what is there is said to be a paradise. It was overrun by krogan extremists a few years ago, but was said to be cleared out. There's still a recommended ban on travel, though nothing really states why."

They all looked at one another, gauging the reactions of each other before they all nodded in agreement.

They would go to Virmire, it was their only real viable option.

* * *

Days later they entered the Hoc System slowly, running as silently as possible from the moment they entered system space. They stopped just outside of planetary sensor range to set up their plan.

Nihlus, John and Garrus dressed in their shittiest, most merc looking gear they had and they piled in to one of the unmarked shuttles from John's Normandy. He had scanned himself, and their transport for bugs on a hunch. Their last plan had gone up in smoke after his ship got the coordinates. This plan wasn't going to be risked the same way.

They were trying the infiltration route.

They had one of the captain's names from one of the ships that they had searched, Captain Crauser. They would claim to be a part of his group.

It wasn't the best plan, and they were relying on the Suns' to be less than organized after such a big attack on their station. It was a large group and they were also counting on them not having a running roster of their members.

Hell, they could just say they were his hired mercs checking for one of their own team.

John and Garrus kept their helmets on, precaution overshadowing any need for comfort as the planet was damn muggy.

Nihlus had altered his clan markings just enough to make recognition not necessarily easy without deeper inspection. He was posing as the leader of their little group and exited the shuttle first.

He was the first to be stopped by the guard in front of the main camp, it wasn't well hidden, but then again no one ever went to Virmire due to the posted travel warnings.

They overheard Nihlus explaining who they were and answering the questions about their gear and why they weren't dressed the same. Nihlus answered easily, winning the guards trust and gaining them entrance. They weren't the only non-Sun mercenaries in the camp.

They were stopped a few more times while in the camp, their credentials checked again and again, questions asked repeatedly. Since they gave the same answers each time, it was eventually agreed that they were supposed to be there.

From that point they moved into the inner camp with ease. They had passed the security points so there was no apparent need to continue questioning them or trying to prevent access.

When they got to what seemed to be the main congregating area they saw Massani and the two women at his side. One was the Enforcer, not changed since the last time they had met her, and another woman. The other woman had a shaved head and wore cargo pants and… a belt, for a top.

Jack, Garrus remembered from the prison dossiers. Jack was lounging in a chair while the Enforcer seemed to be sharing animated words with one of the guards.

This guard looked different, more beefed up. Probably a secondary level of foot soldier. She was gesturing at him wildly for a few moments before he left and she sat heavily on the free chair to Massani's right.

Massani's right hand woman, was what she was called, and it was apparently true.

They made their way closer to the balconied area where the officers were sitting, discussing and drinking with their fellow gang members.

Garrus felt his blood start to pump at the sight of the Enforcer. He was so close.

Then, she caught sight of them. And tensed.

There was no way she recognized their gear, it was different than the last time. Which meant she recognized Nihlus. It was the only reason he could think of that would have her glowering the way she was at them.

She stood and he swore that they were made. They were going to have to fight their way out of here and would probably die. They were outnumbered 100 to 1.

Shit.

But then she did something different, something unexpected. She looked to Massani and said something to garner his attention. He looked at them as well and then back to her. She shook her head at something he said and stood.

She motioned to Nihlus to follow her and he nodded, hesitantly. They were going to follow her lead.

This was a bad idea.

They had no other choice though, Massani was now watching their progress with a grim expression – not that he ever seemed to have any other expression if his mug shots were anything to go by.

She led them through the crowd to a relatively deserted splotch of beach off to one side of the camp where she stopped and just put her hands on her hips.

"Nihlus what in the flying fuck are you doing here?" She demanded, much to their surprise.

Nihlus just stood there for a moment, stunned beyond words, when John spoke in his stead, "Isabelle?"

She turned and tore her mask covering the lower half of her face away and just glared at the trio.

"John, you fucking too?!" She was furious, but at what Garrus couldn't decide.

She was the Enforcer, she was the one who had tortured that krogan on Omega, who had tossed his decapitated head at them, who had managed to outrun and maneuver him. He didn't know whether to be horrified or turned on.

The love of his life was standing before him and he hadn't said a word.

He took one hesitant step forward just as John was removing his helmet. She turned her gaze to him, her piercing eyes digging right in to him.

She didn't say anything as he moved to remove his helmet, the latches unlocking in slow motion. He slid the helmet off and dropped it to the ground.

She said nothing, but the sharp intake of breath was all he needed. He took a few steps towards her before falling to his knees, he reached for her and pulled her in close, resting his forehead against her abdomen.

He found her. He didn't care what she'd done, she was here now. He was holding her.

She was tense as she stood in his embrace, her hands at her side.

"Nihlus, what the fuck is this? It's not Garrus, I watched him die. I held his dead body. This is not possible, so I'll ask you again. What. The. Fuck. Is. This?" Her speech was hurried and lacking the venomous tone she was obviously going for – a wobble in her words giving her away.

Hurt shot through him at first, but instead of pushing her away, he held her closer. She had every right to be suspicious, he reasoned. She had been out of the loop for so long. He felt tears burning behind his eyes as his subvocals cried out for understanding and acceptance that he wasn't sure he was going to get.

He needed the acceptance more than his next breath. If she denied him now…

"Isa, it's him. I know it's hard to believe. Saren will tell you the same. We don't know why, but Saren's brother brought him back. Not Harper. You can check yourself… I promise you, it's Garrus."

He felt her start to shake at Nihlus' words. He felt her walls start to crumble. He held her up when he felt her legs start to give, supporting her in the only way he knew how.

"Y-you swear?" She wanted to believe, he could tell from the shake in her voice. He wanted to give her all the assurances in the universe, but she wouldn't accept them from him.

The thought stung, but not as much as the thought of her not returning his embrace, of her walking away.

Nihlus must have done something behind him because after a moment he felt her hands on his fringe, felt her fingers on his hide. Felt the wetness of her tears slide down his face.

He heard Nihlus and John move back as someone else joined in. Muted voices, Massani's adding to the noise, discussing and then leaving.

It didn't matter, none of it mattered. He was here, with Isa, holding her. She was groping his fringe, his face, his neck, touching him everywhere she could.

The world could burn down around him right now and he wouldn't give a fuck, he had what he needed.


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Mature rating on this chapter! As always, Icyfreezerpop is my hero.**

* * *

They were left on their own, presumably to give them time alone for their reunion. Garrus was thankful for small favors.

After a few minutes of just embracing each other as best they could, she pulled back and Garrus let her.

He stayed awkwardly on his knees as she crossed one arm over her body to rub the forearm of the other. The pose told Garrus volumes – She was nervous.

"Will you… Will you come with me? To my tent?" Her voice was quiet, the nervousness turning to an apparent lack of confidence with the situation.

It made him feel better that she was nervous, because he sure as hell was.

He nodded and stood, walking to stand next to her and took her dangling hand in his. He offered her the best smile he could given his nervous state and nodded again.

He was having trouble finding his voice. His earlier hurt over her initial rejection of him adding to his lack of confidence in regards to her. He understood her apprehension and disbelief, but it still had hurt.

She led him through the camp, replacing her mask before they got anywhere near anyone else. He mused that it was probably second nature to hide herself, no one they passed referred to her as Isabelle or Shepard, she was just "the Enforcer" to them.

Judging from the looks on the faces they passed by, her leading someone away like this was completely unusual. Some looked jealous, others just incredulous. He felt pride well in him as he let that sink in.

So she wasn't in the habit of taking someone to her private quarters. Good. He was significantly calmed and reassured by the thought. It filled him with a certain amount of pleasure that she hadn't moved on from him – not that he'd ever admit that out loud.

They weaved through the crowd, following a lightly worn path through the sand and shallow water. They were heading towards the center of the little atoll. There were prefabricated buildings dotting the islands, but it seemed that she had a preference for a large canvas tent hidden in a well-protected alcove.

There was a lovely path of beach surrounding the tent, just enough to ensure that the water didn't encroach on the living space, and the area was protected on three sides by large jutting cliffs. From the air he had noticed that traversing the tops of the rock formations would be near impossible due to a littering of holes and crevices.

There were three such campsites hidden along the path they took and he could only assume that Massani and Jack had chosen a similar layout.

He didn't know why they hadn't chosen the buildings already present on the island, but those questions would have to wait. His mind was starting to drift to what they would do once they were inside the tent.

She hadn't commented on his changed appearance and the lack of commentary was starting to worry him. Had she noticed? Would she mind? What if it creeped her out?

He started to feel his nerves creep back up on him. It was ridiculous, he had spent weeks needing to be buried hilt-deep inside of her and now that she was here, within reach, he couldn't bring himself to make a move other than holding her hand.

It had been so long for her… What if her passions no longer ran along the same vein?

He spent so much of the final portion of their trek worrying that he didn't notice when they had actually arrived at the entrance to the tent.

Tent wasn't the right word. This structure was tall enough that he could comfortable stand within it and the walls were thick canvas, barely letting any sound carry through.

She waited, eyebrow raised, for him to enter first before she followed and secured the door. She immediately began removing her facial mask, hood and jacket.

She was tense, he could tell by the way she moved, but she was resigned to getting as uncovered as possible. She turned to him, still dressed in her boots, pants and shirt and crossed her arms over her stomach again.

She stared at him for a few moments before he caught the glistening in her eyes. He opened his mouth to say something, but still nothing came out.

It was his turn to tense as she took a few steps towards him and raised her hand to his face. She wasn't really looking at him in that moment, but at the cybernetics peeking through his still unhealed scars and at the slight glow to his eyes.

She ran one hand, gently, over the scarred side of his face while the other mimicked the movement on the other side.

He followed her lead and ran a finger over the scar trailing from under her left eye, noticing that in actuality it ran under her jaw line, abruptly veering towards her ear after disappearing from initial sight.

Her hands had stopped moving and he brought his attention back to her face, her eyes had closed and her expression was a mix of pain and pleasure.

"I've dreamt of this… For so long. I still don't believe I'm not insane." Her voice broke several times and he finally recognized the strain she was under.

He wasted no time pulling her in to his arms and pressing his forehead against hers. Her hands briefly left his face in surprise by the sudden movement, but quickly returned as a sigh of relief left her.

"All I could think of was getting back to you." He ground out, his voice still fighting him. It was much more gravelly than he was used to and he inwardly scolded himself on not sounding as suave as he had wanted.

She must have felt the truth in his statement because she pulled back a bit to look at his face, her eyes wide with realization. "It really is you, isn't it?" This time her voice was filled with wonder and he couldn't help the chuckle that escaped as he nodded.

She threw her arms around his neck and pressed her soft lips firmly against his rough ones. He knew this dance and his heart stuttered in happiness as his tongue ran across her lips, against her own tongue. Her moan was answered by one of his own and suddenly they were both much too clothed.

Her nimble hands started to make quick work of his armor seals as he did his best to work just as hard with her own clothing. Even though he was wearing considerably more, they were done undressing one another at about the same moment.

He took a moment to look over her changed appearance. She was unbraiding her long hair, longer than he remembered. Her body seemed harder, still soft but not as pliant. Tattoos littered her skin and he found he liked them, they accentuated her muscle and form.

When he had first read of the additions he didn't know what to think. He pictured her skin littered with a lot of bad prison art. Instead they were simple and he found them fitting given her experiences.

Again she crossed her arms over her torso and he realized he had been staring for a while. She looked sheepishly up at him.

"I'm sorry… I… I haven't done this in a long while." Again, there was that damned pride as she confirmed his earlier suspicions. He quickly pulled her in to another embrace as he buried his face against her neck.

"That's alright, to me it's only been a few weeks since we were last together. Let me remind you…" He muttered the last part as his teeth grazed along her neck, eliciting her skin to pebble.

He felt her shiver and nod, her hand creeping up the side of his neck to take a firm hold just under his fringe.

Suddenly all of his raging need and desire for her came pouring back as if the dam had finally broken. He let out a feral growl as he lifted her up and moved to deposit her on the bed.

He set her down as gently as he was able in his hyper-aroused state, every muscle in his body thrumming for her, the feel of her and the taste of her.

He propped himself up atop her and ran his hands over her flesh. He was trying to be slow, trying to ready her as he knew she'd need.

Maybe it was too apparent that he was having problems going slow because after a few minutes she put her hands on either side of his neck and used her thumbs to tilt his face up to make eye contact.

"Garrus, the rest can wait. I just need you inside of me, please?" She blushed as she spoke, the admission taking a bit out of her as she smiled wryly.

There was the Isa he remembered, finally coming out. He nodded and quickly guided himself to her already wet entrance.

He kept eye contact with her as he roughly shoved inside of her, keeping eye contact until his eyes closed against the pleasure threatening to overwhelm his restraint.

She was so tight, so small… So ready. He felt her moan more than heard her, the blood rushing past his ears like a raging tide the only thing he could hear.

He held himself still, he didn't want to hurt her. He knew he was hanging on to his control by sheer force of will, the step over the edge teetering closer and closer.

Then she tensed her muscles around him, milking him, and he was lost with a roar of need. He gripped her hips, angling her up so that he could thrust in to her while kneeling upright, and began pounding into her.

She felt so good, so right, he couldn't help what happened next. Her moans mingling with his own growls of sating arousal spurring him further and further over the edge. Harder and harder he drove in to her.

Finally the crescendo, the both hung on the edge as he leaned over to place his face against her neck again. He felt her muscles start to shake and tense with her release, the milking going from subtle to overwhelming.

He pumped harder and faster as he felt something in him break. He heard himself yell as he released inside of her over and over again.

He felt his body tense, his orgasm going and going. He was trying to fill her, to impregnate her. Through his repeated moans he managed to get out four words, "Isabelle, I love you".

As his release finally started to abate he found himself repeating the phrase over and over again as her hands ran over his plates. His body unrelenting in its' hardness, even though he was momentarily spent.

"Please don't leave me, I love you too much. I wanted to ask you to marry me, I wanted a future with you. I know I just came back, I know these years haven't been easy for you. Spirits Isa, I've been so desperate to find you." He pulled her closer, never leaving her, rolling on to his back so that he could hold her as the emotions finally overwhelmed his good sense and he let the floodgates open.

"I was going to wait until this business with Harper was over and ask you to be my bondmate. I'd known for weeks that I loved you, I've known you were the one for me since we got you back from Harper. I can't do this without you…"

He trailed off, the emotion finally robbing him of his ability to speak. She was looking at him, he could feel it, but he couldn't bring himself to return his gaze to her. He was staring at the ceiling, waiting for the rejection. He knew he was pushing her too soon, too fast, but he couldn't help it.

He had been so beyond stressed since he woke, desperate to find her again that when the opportunity to tell her everything came, he couldn't prevent the tumble of words from his mouth.

He swallowed harshly as the silence dragged on between them.

Eventually he had to look, he had to see if she had even heard him.

Their eyes met, she was laying on top of him, her cheek resting on his chest as she just stared up at him. When he finally looked down he realized her fingers were dancing along his waist and her toes were rubbing his spurs.

He almost didn't wait for a response before thrusting up in to her again and delaying the inevitable conversation, but she moved forward a bit, out of easy reach.

"I'm not going to go back with you." She started and he felt his heart sink. She raised a finger as he went to speak.

"I'm not going to make a target out of you again. Garrus," She pulled herself up a bit more, dislodging him from her with a soft pop, his groan rolling up his throat as she brought her face even with his, "I will marry you, bond with you, whatever you want. I love you too and I'm not letting you go again, but I can't risk you again that way. It killed me when you died… I was still dealing with it when you came back. I can't do that again. I promise after we make our move against Harper I will never leave your side again, but until I do I need you to act like you didn't find me."

Her forehead was against his as she spoke, her hands framing his jaw. He felt the conviction in what she was saying. She wasn't leaving him, she wasn't ending this. She loved him. Hell, he even understood her reasoning.

If he hadn't found her then he wasn't a walking target for Harper.

He would agree with this situation… For now. He would just have to find reasons to come talk to Massani and his Enforcer.

He found himself grinning like an idiot as his hands went back to her hips. "Did you just agree to be my bondmate?"

He rolled his hips up to meet hers slightly. It was a tease and he saw that it was working. Her eyelids grew heavy as she tried to slide back down his body – he was holding her still and preventing her from moving.

Now that the immediate edge had been taken away he felt the need to play with her, their old habits sliding easily back.

"Unh, yes I suppose I did… Isabelle Vakarian doesn't sound too bad does it?" She looked up at him with such a sensual look that he felt it straight down to his toes.

"No, not bad at all." He growled out as he pulled her back down over him. Impaling her roughly as he rested his head back.

She immediately sat up and started to ride him, her fingers playing along his waist and sending sparks straight to the head of his cock as he moved in and out of her.

This was heaven, this was all he wanted.

They spent the rest of the night and all of the next day enjoying each other's company. The planet was hot and muggy during the day and cool and breezy at night. They napped in small spurts, one waking to the other's touch and they would inevitably end up wrapped in the passion that had yet to cool.

It was night again when Garrus woke first. The air was cool on his exposed hide and he slowly stretched. His body protested in places he had forgotten about.

He found Isa curled tightly against his side, her body wrapped around his arm. She was clinging to him in such a way that his heart ached for her.

How hard had it been on her, fighting for her life at every corner, not letting anyone else close? He ran his free hand over her cheek and she turned towards his touch in her sleep.

He smiled to himself as he ran his fingers over her arm and waist, dipping towards the front of her body to slip between her folds.

She was still wet from their previous joinings and he felt himself stiffen at the thought of sliding inside of her again.

She woke with a soft sigh that turned to a moan as he slipped a finger inside of her, reveling in the fact that she was still tight.

Humans were built for sex.

Her hand trailed up his own side and moved to the side of his neck as he worked his finger inside of her. She was gripping his neck hard, her nails biting in to his hide, feeding his own arousal.

Then she moved her free hand down to his hard shaft and his moans joined hers as they worked each other over.

Eventually neither was satisfied with heavy petting and they drove each other over the edge in mutually heated passion.

He held her close as she laid on top of him again, something he never could have imagined would be comfortable before Isa. He had always liked his space after sex, but with her he always wanted to be close to her.

She groaned a bit and he raised his head in concern that he might have hurt her, his mandibles twitching in surprise.

"I think my body is finally catching up with the fact that I haven't done that in years." She said with a pained winced. She chuckled as she looked up at him, her face full of humor as she ran her hand over his jaw again.

He chuckled as well as the meaning of her statement hit him. "Yes, well, I do suppose it's time for us to go out and find our friends. They've probably written us off for dead."

She chuckled too and slid off of him. He was hungry, but he really had little desire to leave the tent. Hell, a little starvation was more than payment for getting to spend time with Isa. With his Isa. His bondmate.

Nevermind that they hadn't gone through the official ceremony yet, he was already considering them as good as married – as the humans put it.

He watched her get dressed again, admiring her thighs as they showed through her pants, and her waist that was left revealed from under her shirt.

"Who do I get to thank for the wardrobe change?" He said from his perch on the bed. He was still working out the motivation to really move, his stomach's growls doing little to make him want to get out of the blushed and chuckled as she tossed his under armor suit at him. "Jack, she's got a flair for fashion."

He chuckled as she said that, remembering the belt-like contraption on the other woman's chest.

"Yes, flair. I guess I should be thankful you're walking around wearing anything at all." He winked at her as she stuttered and started to laugh, catching on to his reference. "Yeah, I suppose you should be." She snickered. "You know I'm such a voyeuristic person… I might want to move to one of those nudist colonies." She mockingly tapped her finger against her lip as she looked thoughtful.

He visibly shuddered at the thought, he had seen things at some of those nudist colonies. People who shouldn't be nude – batarians did not age well.

She laughed as she caught his expression, "Come on big guy, let's get some food and assure the others that I haven't run off with you yet."

He moved from the bed and stepped up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her against him. "I love you."

They weren't in the throes of passion this time, he felt like he needed to say it as much as possible whenever possible. She leaned against him and turned her head to look up at him.

"I love you too. It's nice to finally be able to say it." She mused as she covered his arms with her own. "I always dreamt that I had been able to tell you before you – well before. Those were the good dreams." She was sad again and he couldn't have that.

He turned her around in his arms and pressed his forehead against hers, rolling his face in the way they had started doing to place his lips against hers – a compromise of kissing styles. "Now it's not a dream. I'm here and I'm not going anywhere."

She darted her tongue out to run it across his lips and a strangled groan slipped his throat.

"No! Get off of me you beast! I need a break, and food, and maybe some water before we barricade ourselves off again." She mockingly swatted him with a sock as she struggled to get away from him.

He was laughing and conceding to the sock assault, stepping back with his hands raised. "I surrender, clothes and then food it is!" He laughed as he moved away to get dressed, peeking glances at her as he did so.

Spirits it felt good to laugh. He hadn't since he had woken that he could remember. He felt like a weight had been lifted. He could go back to his ship, get the things done that needed to be done, and see her when he had time.

It wasn't ideal, but he would take it. Once this shit with Harper and Hackett was done then he could talk her in to moving onto his ship with him. Hell, he could plan a bonding ceremony and bind her to him legally, spiritually and physically.

His body already recognized her as his mate, he had realized it some days earlier. The haze he was going through was a rare phenomenon in turians but had been reported in bonded males who were kept from their mates for extended periods of time. His mind had already mated her to him and his body was following suit.

He finished getting in to his armor just as she was pulling her hood over her head and placing her mask. He could tell she was smiling by the crinkle of skin next to her eyes as she winked at him and extended her hand out.

They may not be broadcasting that he had found Isabelle Shepard, but they weren't being shy about the fact that the Enforcer had found herself a little light in the darkness.


	12. Chapter 12

The next few days went by quickly. Too quickly for In Garrus' opinion.

Garrus and Isabelle had rejoined their friends and family to a mix of jeers and congratulations, Massani and Jack making more of a show out of the fact that their friend had, as Jack put it, "Gotten the D".

Isabelle was glad throughout most of the day that a good portion of her face was covered because she was blushing like a schoolgirl ninety-percent of the time. Garrus kept shooting her looks that could only be described as smoldering and she was impatiently waiting for the night to come so she could make her excuses to go back to her tent with him in tow.

She was needed, however, out in the open. She needed to be seen next to Massani a lot of the time. Gangs were fickle in how they looked at their leadership and any perceived weakness in Massani's leadership – her own deviations included – could provoke a coup attempt and she really didn't feel like dealing with that on top of her revenge plan.

The group gathering at the "main stage", the raised platform where Massani, Jack and Isabelle regularly were seated, also had a dual purpose. Be seen together, unified, and above the rest.

Now that The Enforcer had been contacted their guests needed to work through their plans.

Garrus informed John and Nihlus that she would not be returning with them, much to Jack and Massani's relief.

"What do you mean you're staying here?! Are you insane?!" John practically yelled, earning him a few hushing hisses from Jack and Nihlus.

"Yes, John, I am. First, I have my own business to finish now that we've gotten Zaeed's power struggle taken care of. Second, I do not trust this group Garrus is with and from what we've discussed, neither is he."

"She's right; I don't. The Enforcer and I compared notes to the attack on your space station, Massani, and the symbols she's describing are eerily similar to the symbols I remember seeing when I first woke up. I don't know that they're the same because everything is a little blurry from those first moments and I haven't seen anything on the ship yet, but that mixed with the fact that the attack seemed to come after my ship was notified of the coordinates makes me uneasy. I'm going to follow my gut on this one and say we should hold off on announcing that I've found what I was looking for." Garrus quickly interjected before John could continue to argue with Isabelle.

Nihlus was the first to concede and sighed while shaking his head, "You have a point. I have to admit I was suspicious myself, especially when Saren said who was in charge of your deal, Garrus. Desolace is not the most stable turian on a good day… If he's found a reason to side with Harper on this then… Well, it would be unpleasant to act too hastily."

John just crossed his arms and glared at Isabelle, obviously trying to silently bully his sister in to agreeing with him. It had the opposite effect and she crossed her own arms and glared right back.

She could do this all day long, they had been having these silent arguments since they were children.

She knew what he wanted, he wanted her to at least come on his ship. He wanted her under his "watchful eye" where he could keep her safe. She shook her head and he grumbled.

Their audience watched with interest to see which sibling would be victorious and when John finally uncrossed his arms and grabbed a beer, proceeding to take a too-large gulp from it they knew that she had won.

She would be staying and enacting her plan.

"So, Enforcer, what is your plan from here on out?" John asked, saying her title with a bit of annoyed disdain. She had to remind herself that he wasn't insulting her, wasn't challenging her authority. She did not need to maim or kill him to maintain control.

She was no longer in prison where everything was in question.

Isabelle took a deep breath to quell her visceral immediate reaction and smirked a bit behind her mask.

"I am going to assassinate Hackett. After I get him to give me all of his footage and correspondence from the Harper's alteration program, of course."

Nihlus' mandibles went slack for a moment and John's mouth hung open in an equally startled gesture. She couldn't suppress the chuckle that broke past her lips and earned herself an undignified nudge from Garrus.

She had told Garrus her plan already and, while he didn't like not being there with her, understood.

"You're going to WHAT?!" John exclaimed as he stood and threw his arms in the air. "Are you suicidal!? He's one of the most guarded admirals in the Alliance! You won't even get close."

The smirk she wore was obvious by her tone, "Won't I? John I've spent three years trying to go as unnoticed as possible. Neither you, Saren or Nihlus had ever found me and don't pretend you haven't tried. Garrus may have given you the nudge to look at the obvious, but Aria does let me know when people are poking around Omega for me. I've killed quite a few people during my time in prison and out of it, I will get in and I will kill him."

John must have seen something in her eyes because he just sighed and sat back down, drinking from his beer again.

"How will we contact you?" Nihlus decided to change the subject from her planned assassination. It was better if he and John heard little of it given their Spectre status. It was hard to say what you did or did not know about when you stopped listening.

"I will contact you. Garrus gave me your omnitool ID's so I can send you a message when I'm ready for pickup. Besides, I feel like you'll already know when it's time." She winked at the group, Nihlus and John further unsettled by the cackles and deep laughs erupting from Massani and Jack.

Jack stood on a table as she excitedly made her statement, "Yeah, boys, you'll know when The Enforcer follows through. Half of the galaxy will know!" She immediately knocked back another gulp of her liquor as she fell backwards into Massani's lap.

Isabelle raised an eyebrow as she watched the show. Apparently she hadn't been paying attention to her companions' relationships. Probably because her own was dead – why would she want to watch other people's romances? Judging from the way Jack was wrapping herself around Zaeed and his apparent glee at the circumstance, she guessed this wasn't a new occurrence.

Shit, she was a bad friend. She hadn't noticed this before – or maybe they hadn't expressed this in front of her?

She wondered if they had held back for her sake, knowing what she was going through. Knowing that watching someone else's budding involvement might make her feel more despondent.

The way Zaeed looked from her to Garrus and winked, she felt her estimation was right. Now that she was moving on from having her lover die in front of her they felt they could be more public about it.

She was surprised they weren't questioning her about whether she really believed it was him, whether she could trust this walking miracle that was warming her bed. They were probably reassured by Nihlus and John before Garrus and she had come out of the tent.

Massani had always been a bit of a fatherly figure to her, not as much as Captain Anderson had been, but still there looking out for her and giving her advice. She still remembered the first time she met him on assignment. She was supposed to take down a slaving ring and another person had taken out a rival contract.

Massani was their mercenary. He had already been booted from the Suns at this point and was working as a freelancer.

They had worked against each other for days as they tried to outsmart one another to get to their targets. They were upfront about who they worked for in an attempt to bully the other in to submission with the "My boss is bigger than your boss" argument.

They finally started working together when they were both caught in an avalanche. They were approaching the slaver's camp, loudly. They were too busy trying to outdo one another that the slavers were tipped off to their presence and started blasting at the mountain side they were camped out next to.

The slavers had moved their camp a ways away without Massani and Isabelle noticing, blasted the mountain and effectively caught their would-be killers.

It had taken her and Massani more days to finally get out of the rubble and it had forced them to work together. They found that they worked well when they weren't comparing metaphorical dick sizes.

They had worked together again to take down the slavers and both went back to their bosses triumphant.

An added bonus was that Massani and she communicated frequently, working together more and more throughout the years and they became good friends.

Jack was a completely different story. Jack and Isabelle had met by chance, in prison.

It was the first week Isabelle was there, still working out the politics of prison. She found Jack being overwhelmed by men, attempting to overpower her and… Well, do what evil men do in prison to unsuspecting women.

The surprising fact, that Isabelle only found surprising when she thought back on to it now, was that Jack was overwhelmed at all. Jack was a mean ball of spitfire on most days.

Isabelle hadn't hesitated to go to Jack's rescue, helping to fight off the men and pull her out of harm's way.

Later, Jack had admitted that one of the people had been someone she had grown up with.

No, grown up with signifies some sort of relationship. He had grown up around her, separate but in the same place. He had surprised Jack by talking about her childhood, effectively stunning her into a shocked child-like state.

Isabelle had helped Jack regain her previous composure and ever since Jack had been her constant companion.

It helped that Isabelle asked nothing of Jack and she probably was the only person who had found out Jack's potential and never asked anything of her. Isabelle had actually refused to involve Jack at first. She would discuss her plans with Massani, but refuse to allow Jack to help.

Jack finally argued her way in and Isabelle has never regretted that decision. She had to admit that she'd miss the "psychotic biotic" if she hadn't brought her along. Jack was the closest thing to a "BFF" she'd ever had.

The sun was finally setting as the drinks had started to flow more freely. John and Nihlus were excusing themselves to their shuttle to meet back up with Saren – apparently a nightly ritual, while Isabelle grabbed Garrus by the hand and indicated that they should go to privacy as well.

The boys were leaving in the morning, heading back to Saren and their own ships. They all had responsibilities other than babysitting her and they couldn't stay here like this for too long.

Her stomach clenched at the thought of already saying goodbye to Garrus and judging from the way he was looking at her he wasn't too excited about it either.

Once in the tent, he wrapped an arm around her and dragged her front flush with his. He pulled her mask down her face and brushed his lip plates over her mouth, sighing into the movement.

"Let's not waste this." He muttered against her lips as his hands began to work the fastenings on her clothes.

She smiled sadly and mimicked his movements, removing his armor just as hastily before they fell onto her bed in a desperate embrace.

The morning came too quickly, sleep had eluded them and instead they worked hard on imprinting as much of themselves on the other that they could.

The sex wasn't the same rough, fast passion that they had shared the previous day; this wasn't two lovers reuniting after years a part, desperate for the other's touch. No, this was two lovers about to leave one another. This was each person trying to leave a piece of their soul with the other.

When the time came they slowly unattached themselves from the other and got dressed for the day. They didn't speak, just dressed slowly and carefully. Outside the tent was the real world, a world that meant that Garrus would leave to risk his lives for others and Isabelle would risk her own to avenge lives lost and altered beyond repair.

They touched foreheads, kissed lips, and then steeled themselves for the day. They exited the tent together and walked to the camp together. Still, no words were spoken.

Nihlus and John were waiting for them at the edge of the camp, Massani and Jack nowhere to be seen. This was not their farewell and they knew it.

John hugged his sister, Nihlus brushed his mandible against her cheek, and Garrus ran a finger over her collar bone. He seemed to hold himself back from doing more as he turned and marched on to the shuttle. John and Nihlus muttered their goodbyes and followed, the shuttle taking off shortly after they all had boarded.

She watched the shuttle to move out of visibility before she turned on heel and marched back in to the camp.

It was time to start her war and she had all of the motivation she needed to make sure that it was done right. For the first time since she had started to plan her revenge she actually cared if she survived it or not.

She needed to rework her plan of attack, she needed to make sure that she had back up this time, and she needed a fantastic distraction.

In fact, she had just the thing in mind.

* * *

Garrus returned to his ship with a mix of feelings. He hated leaving Isa behind, but knew and agreed with her reasoning. He also was wary of all of his crew, who would be a betrayer? He felt emboldened by the notion that someone was a spy (or maybe they all were?) and also a little sickened.

They had spent so much effort putting him back together, was it to torture him with the idea that he could never have peace? He knew their mission, had researched the disappearances himself and he knew that they weren't lying, so why the spy?

He didn't even know for sure yet if there was a spy… But ever since Isa had mentioned it he couldn't shake the feeling that she was right.

Dr. Michel was waiting on the Command Deck when he arrived back on the ship, immediately marching up to him and demanding to know where he had been, what he had found, and why he had not contacted her.

Why he had not contacted her, not the ship in general. "I thought I was the commander of this ship, Doctor?" He couldn't keep the grumble out of his voice, his annoyance apparent.

She was flustered by his response, but not dismayed. "Yes, and I would still like to know where you were. I spent years helping to bring you back to the living and I would like to know that my efforts were not wasted. Desolace is growing impatient and wants to know when you can start work on the task he gave you. You owe him a lot and this is disrespectful of the credits he put in to you for you to gallivant all over looking for some lost lover!" Her pitch increased on the last work and Garrus felt that she had really meant that his obsession with looking for a lost lover was why she was really upset.

"You're right." He said and she seemed to want to continue arguing before the words sunk in.

"I, what, I am?" She started to fiddle with her hands as he strode past her towards the elevator doors.

"Yes, set a course for the last settlement to go missing. We'll see if there's any clues left behind. Also forward me those dossiers from Desolace. I will go through them and while we're investigating we'll pick some of them up."

She was following behind him with a bit of a stunned look while nodding with his orders. "Yes, of course Garrus… What did you find with them that has made you suddenly decide to get started?" She looked at him suspiciously, her hand in the elevator door to keep the door from closing.

"I found the answers I needed. Now if you'll excuse me, I need a shower and to organize some things before we reach our destination." He reminded himself of his father as he spoke, quick authority and leaving no room for questions.

"Would you like company?" She asked coyly, holding her hands behind her back causing her chest to be thrust out.

She did not get the hint and he must have not been as authoritative as he thought he was being.

"No." He stated simply before actually pulling her hand off of the elevator door to allow the door to close. He punched in his destination and smirked to himself.

He had a plan and clearly defined goals now. More importantly, he had Isa. Sure, she wasn't there with him, but she was his. They would be reunited for good once this mess was taken care of.

Now he just needed to shower and alter his omni-tool to increase the inscription, search for physical and software bugs, and debug his room.

Simple child's play.

* * *

Isabelle had set her plan in motion, letting it leak that the Blue Suns were going to attack some major Alliance officials as payback for having worked so hard to put Massani behind bars the first round.

Massani had gone in to hiding and she had contingents of the gang spread out around the galaxy. They used their own code and language to communicate movements and raids.

The gang members themselves were surprisingly enthusiastic about the entire endeavor. Only a few knew the true plan, but the rest were just happy to have the go ahead on attacking shipments and installations – though they were under orders to drive the soldiers off and not outright kill.

Isabelle knew that was fairly unrealistic with gang members versus soldiers and she tried, unsuccessfully, to not dwell on the idea. She was sentencing many to their deaths. She comforted herself by telling herself that she was saving many others from unsanctioned experiments.

She would have been apprehensive about this had she not stumbled upon some information that sealed her plan of attack.

Hackett was authorizing experiments on his own soldiers. They were always already injured, presumed dead, and therefore their extended absence was never thought of as strange.

She had been lucky to stumble upon the information as it was, a doctor who was working on the project had decided to vacation in Omega while she was there on business. The man was a blubbering mess by the time she had found him. He was drinking his worries away and had broken the second rule of Omega.

If you're human, don't drink in Afterlife.

He was already near death when she had dragged him out of the bar, not wanting to give the batarian bartender the satisfaction of seeing his newest victim die in front of a crowd. The doctor had said it was his penance for his sins. He had said that they were doing monstrous things to soldiers, that they were killing more than they were helping.

She knew this man wasn't actually giving her information, he was delusional and nearly dead. He was rambling the thoughts that were running close to the surface, all the while keeping the actual details silent.

He had died before he could give her a location.

She spent months tracking down enough information to determine if it was true or simply the drunken ramblings of a dying man. What she found was disturbing, but not damning. Had she found something actually solid she would simply hijack a news station and air everything publicly. Instead, she was going to break in to Hackett's office.

She had her distraction team ready to go, creating a disturbance within shuttle range of the Fifth Fleet, drawing eyes to them while she boarded and snuck to the Admiral's office.

There, she would do what she did best, get the information, kill Hackett, and get out before she was discovered.

She wasn't a foolish woman, she knew already that Hackett would likely be alone in his office. He preferred to work this way. She had pretended to be a fan, someone who had watched his career for years and wanted to be like the man, and had hounded his officers on shore leave for any detail.

All the questions she asked were, individually, innocuous. She wasn't asking anything untoward or strange. The key was to ask different questions from different people. When you pieced everything together the puzzle became a masterpiece.

She had learned that he kept his officers out of his office, preferring to do business alone. He would call people in when he needed things done and they were handy. If someone was going to take too long to get to the office, he would simply send them orders via Omni.

He had become more reclusive as his years as an admiral piled up. At one point he was considered a good officer and a good man. He was once always out with his men, not some hermit who directed from his golden throne.

She could only surmise that the burden of guilt at what he was condoning was weighing on him. She smirked to herself as she gave the go ahead to move her plan in motion. She was doing the man a favor that he would not appreciate, killing him was for his own good as well as the good of his soldiers.

She waited patiently for her team to send the signal saying that she was good to go.

She was nestled in the air vents of an incoming freighter that was delivering supplies from a nearby farming colony. She had snuck on board during loading and simply camped out until it took her where she wanted to go.

She had disengaged communications other than from select people, not wanting her omni-tool to give her position away.

The signal came through just as the ship was docking with the cruiser Gallahad. She slipped from the transport unnoticed, her cloak keeping her from being seen. She moved expertly from the transport in to the electrical ducts of the Gallahad, having studied the layout of the ship for weeks before she was ready to infiltrate.

She worked her way through different levels of security and barriers, keeping her intrusion as minimal as possible. Just a glitch here and a flicker there, all common on older cruisers.

She had worked closely with her tech expert, Valof, a batarian technical engineer gone rogue. He had shown her the best ways to bypass any system with minimal feedback. She silently thanked the deities for him every time she successfully navigated another security panel.

It seemed like hours she was working her way from the bottom of the ship to the top. She finally bypassed the last panel and slipped through to the air ducts for the Admiral's office. As promised, he was sitting at his desk looking at a data pad.

She quickly sent a hacking program through the door's electrical line, as planned, and imprisoned the Admiral in his own workspace.

She silently dropped through the vent and landed behind the man, her breath coming in excited pants. She was still covered and her identity well protected as planned, but she wished for one moment that she could see the horror on his face when he recognized her.

Her breaths alerted him to her presence and he reeled on her, swinging a fist blindly.

She dodged the fist and returned with one of her own. His aging body no match for her altered one. He sank back into his chair with a grunt of pain. She quickly dove on him, securing him to his chair. He called out for help, but was answered with only her laugh.

"They can't hear you, that's the thing about industrial strength cruiser doors. You want them to protect you in case of an attack or fire… Makes it hard to hear you without coms." She laughed as he tried again to get someone's attention.

"What do you want, assassin?" He ground out when he realized that she was right and he wasn't getting any backup any time soon. His door being locked was not uncommon when he didn't want disturbances, but the lack of comms will notify someone that something is wrong.

"I want all of the information you have on your dealings with Jack Harper, his Miranda Lawson, and the experiments on your soldiers." She made her demands easily, leaning in to her hip as she crossed her arms over her midsection.

He stared at her wide eyed for a minute before spitting at her feet. "No."

"No? Are you sure? I mean, I'd hate to get too much blood on that lovely uniform of yours." She didn't wait for his answers as she strode to his work console and began trying to hack into it.

He watched her for a minute before his pride overcame his desire to live, "You won't get in to it, and you need me alive for the files you're looking for. If you keep mucking about it'll self-destruct, so I would stop while you're ahead. You might want to start thinking about how you're going to get back out of here."

He seemed entirely too smug for her and she turned her attention away from the computer to him. "Well then… I'll just have to make sure you tell me and survive until I have it, won't I?"

He paled a bit, but straightened his posture. "You'll never break me."

She smiled as she advanced on him, moving him further from the desk so that she had some room to work.

* * *

Captain Anderson forced himself to watch the security footage until the end, when the assassin left the same way she had come.

It was all over the news, the fall of the Great Admiral Hackett. The assassin had aired file after file on demented experiments, depraved dealings with sick minds, and forcing his own soldiers to undergo untested augmentations.

All for personal gain and the glory of the Fifth Fleet. Alliance command will have a field day mopping up this PR mess.

The more compelling question was who this assassin was, or who had sent her. Even with the poor video quality he could tell that the woman was human, and augmented. Her eyes were visible glowing dots under the shade of her hood. The rest of her face from below her eyes was covered in a mask.

It had become apparent throughout the vid that she was unnaturally strong. The way she could move Hackett as if he were a child, the ease in which she broke his legs, the speed in which she dodged when he managed to break a little bit free and strike at her.

She had tortured him only for a short time, apparently getting the code to his personal computer easily enough. She had mocked him as she rummaged through his files and copied then publicized the files she was looking for.

Hackett had contracted out with the once-famous, now infamous Jack Harper. The man was known for being a loose cannon now, too much of "the ends justify the means" in his tactics.

Hackett had asked the woman if she was going to torture him, if she was finished with her revenge.

It was then that she turned to look at him, her face seen by the camera (well, as much as you could under the gear) and her eyes glistened with malice.

"No, I'm not done with my revenge. This is just the beginning."

He started to say something and she didn't hesitate to reach for her holstered weapon and put a hole in Hackett's forehead. Anderson could hear her muttering, "Never say that name. You haven't earned that right."

So Hackett had been about to out his attacker. He knew her, so she wasn't just a contractor – this was personal.

He sighed and ran his hand over his head, she was probably one of the ones he forced into one of the programs. He'd seen this movie, the damaged and battered soldier exacting their revenge. He understood, but that didn't make it right and it didn't sate the Alliance's questions.

He was tasked with finding her and getting to the bottom of this and he knew just where to start.

As Alliance, however, he had limited access around the galaxy. He only had power where humans had power and therefore he needed more.

He knew just where to go for more, too.

Anderson sat down at his desk and composed his request to John Shepard. Spectre John Shepard. He had been close to Shepard and his younger sibling as they grew up and as they increased in ranks through the Alliance.

He knew he could count on that friendship to find his prey.


	13. Chapter 13

Garrus wasted no further time working on his mission; the reason he was brought back into this universe.

He had already been looking over dossiers, missing colony reports and findings from the first few turian and human investigators who examined each colony.

The missing colonies in and of themselves were… Strange, to put it lightly. Occasional findings of blood and some signs of resistance, but not enough to explain an entire missing colony. Moreover, there was no video footage left. Whoever was abducting the colonists knew enough to cover their tracks.

That made Garrus nervous, if they were so thorough as to remove the data cache of videos then figuring out who was behind this would be even more troublesome.

Well, it was a good thing Garrus was up to the task. He set a course for Omega first and foremost. There was a salarian scientist he knew there that could possibly help. Garrus had a mind for puzzles and solving difficult mysteries, but having another set of eyes never hurt.

Moreover, Mordin Solus was a genius and would almost certainly have insight that Garrus may overlook. He and Mordin had worked together on more than one tough situation before he had become a spectre and each time they collaborated had left Garrus with a newfound respect for the doctor's mind and abilities.

Garrus wondered briefly if he should inform his benefactor of their perspective new guest, but decided better of it.

Desolas would just have to deal if he didn't approve. Though, Garrus couldn't think of any good reason why Desolas wouldn't approve. It was all in the support of Desolas's mission so he should be ecstatic that Garrus was bringing others in on the project.

But something in his gut told Garrus that Desolas would not approve of outside help.

The fact that Garrus felt that way raised a few alarm bells and Garrus promised himself that he would do this his way, Desolas be damned, and he would simply not give Desolas a chance to try and stop him from doing this his way.

He'd just have to be damned good at what he was trying to do, a personal goal of Garrus'. Do it to the best of your ability or don't do it at all.

He was walking through the crew deck on his way to the medical center to discuss with Dr. Michel some possible planets to watch for unusual activity when a scoffing sound caught his attention.

He stopped and rose his head towards the sound – Kyrea and Kelly Chambers were discussing something in hushed tones, their eyes falling on him periodically. They hadn't noticed that he had noticed them and continued.

He remembered the last time he and Kyrea were alone, even though it was more like when she snuck up on him. It should have been embarrassing, being so out of control that he was ready to bed the first willing female, like a pup experiencing his first lust. Instead, Garrus felt something solidify in him. Resolve to make them step in line or get the fuck off of his ship.

Garrus marched right up to the pair and got within a good 4 feet of them before they realized he was heading for them.

"Chambers, Kyrea, anything you'd like to share with the rest of us?" Garrus asked casually. He kept his disdain out of his face and voice. His dislike need not effect whether or not he could make them work for him or against him.

"Vakarian, sir, no." Kelly piped up in shock. Kyrea stood at attention… Kind of. It was just formal enough that Garrus would be considered an overbearing ass to correct her and just casual enough to be insulting.

"Good. Kelly I have sent you some notes on the disappearances that I'd like you to go over and give your opinion on. Kyrea, I do believe you are supposed to be assisting Kenn in engineering, not leaving him to do all of the work."

He eyed her reaction, judging if she really was an engineer or simply a pretty plant put here to distract him. He watched the color drain and then rise from her neck as embarrassment and outrage seemed to war over her features.

She clipped off a crisp salute and stalked her way to the elevator, presumably back towards engineering.

Since Garrus had been back on the ship and back in his right mind he had been going over security footage for the ship. Kyrea took entirely too many breaks and Kenn took entirely too few. It balanced out somewhere, but if he was going to keep the woman on as a member of the crew than she needed to do something other than try and get laid and chat it up with the other women.

He would have thought a turian woman with military experience, which she had, would know better.

Kelly quickly excused herself and followed Kyrea's example of getting back to work. The cook, Gardner gave Garrus a quick wink and a thumbs up as he passed on his way to the medical bay. Apparently Garrus wasn't the only one who noticed the slackers.

Entering the bay, Chloe turned in her chair and beamed at Garrus. "Garrus, what do I owe this pleasure?"

He cringed inwardly at her tone. She was doing the flirtatious and sickeningly sweet thing again. He swallowed his unease and sat next to her, laying a few data pads out on the counter.

"I'd like to talk to you about some strange things I've noticed from each of the colonies."

* * *

Kelly Chambers stood at her post and sighed. She hadn't expected Vakarian to be out and about amongst the crew. He hadn't done much for their cause yet and she was expecting him to be much the same after he returned to the ship from whatever he was doing with his old crew.

That was the plan, afterall. Keep him distracted but visible. They wanted it to be known that Garrus Vakarian was alive and active in the galaxy. She wasn't sure why, but the colonies disappearing was secondary to just getting him seen.

She and Kyrea had been discussing the temperament Kyrea had found him in a few days prior and were remarking how well Desolas' plan was working. They wanted to keep him in a distracted state of arousal, hence the primarily female crew. They were primarily human, as that was his decided preference prior to his death, but there was also a turian in case he wanted something closer to home.

Kelly brought up the footage from Vakarian's room of the night when Kyrea tried to seduce him. The way he pinned her against the wall had Kelly groaning inwardly. She would have loved to be in that position with a strong, handsome turian like Vakarian.

But Vakarian was too intense for her. The way he had stalked up to her and Kyrea in the chow hall earlier had taken Kelly by surprise and she didn't like being surprised.

Kyrea had remarked that he was almost lust-crazed enough to take her up on her offer, but she wasn't sure what had brought him back to his senses.

He had summarily kicked her out of his quarters and had gone on the extended mission, entirely solo, shortly afterwards.

All of the crew were under strict orders from Dr. Michel to find out what happened on the mission and try to figure out why Vakarian was suddenly at the top of his game. Whatever happened on his mission had been good for him, and bad for them.

Kelly and Kyrea continued to message each other while working for the rest of their shifts. They were going to meet in the starboard lounge after they were done and talk then. Kelly blushed briefly when she accidentally referred to it as a date.

Kenn was the only one on the ship who seemed to genuinely be there simply to be there and work. He was never included on the mission parameter messages from ML, an unknown operative, and TIM – the secondary leader under Desolas.

Kelly almost felt bad for their quarian engineer, except that he didn't mind. Obviously, he didn't know he was being kept out of the loop. She supposed it was also why Vakarian seemed to prefer Kenn – he was the only one on the ship not lying to him about something. Vakarian and Kenn had an honest and sincere friendship, which made Kenn Vakarian's first choice for every mission off-ship. It allowed either Chloe or Kyrea to observe and report back… Though it mainly ended up being Chloe as the second party member.

Kelly typed up a report to Desolas, TIM, and ML informing them of Vakarian's change in behavior and then actually got to work reading over the mission reports he had forwarded her. She decided to be honest in her appraisal, since he would suspect something if she had drastically different-than-expected views and this was likely a test of her ability to help on missions.

She smiled a bit as she wrote up her analysis. It felt good to be using her skills again for something other than deception.

* * *

John Shepard was not looking forward to the meeting ahead of him. He was supposed to be meeting Anderson for lunch on the Citadel and John had a sinking suspicion he knew why.

He had received the notice of Admiral Hackett's death, had read the public report and the private one. The purported video footage was not with the files. John wasn't sure what the footage actually showed, but if they knew that Isabelle was involved then he doubted he's be meeting Anderson at the best sushi place outside of Earth.

He steeled himself against his concerned emotions for his sister, putting his casual game face on. He had left his crew back on the Normandy in order to keep them from having to lie. He kept a skeleton crew on his ship and all were aware of his visit with his sister the previous week. They had agreed to keep it to themselves, but he wasn't going to outright test that loyalty.

Walking in to the restaurant, he sauntered past the hostess and walked directly to where he saw Anderson sitting at the bar.

"I'm assuming you told them you'd be having company so I wouldn't have to wait in line and watch you eat for an hour." John started casually with a hint of humor.

His relationship with Anderson had always been friendly and casual when able. They treated each other like equals instead of Captain and Commander. Anderson would always outrank John, but John was the spectre amongst the two. They figured it evened them out.

Anderson laughed and stood to extend his hand to John, a handshake John enthusiastically returned.

"I thought about it, leaving you out there, but then I thought that you'd probably miss real food and pass out while waiting in line from the mere thought of unprocessed food." Anderson was quick to counter, signaling for John to take a seat as he returned to his own.

"That's not far from the truth." John broke his chopsticks apart and waited for the sushi chef to place their first morsels.

This was one of those places where if you sat at the bar, you didn't order. The chefs decided what you ate based off of what was good that day.

The first few pieces were placed in front of them and the two men inhaled the food as politely as possible. It seemed that the first course was enough time for Anderson to get his wits about him and break directly in to business.

"So I'm assuming you've heard about Hackett?" He started, waiting only for John to nod before continuing. "There's video footage. I'll transfer it to your omni before we leave. We suspect it's a soldier that is or was under his command. We can't tell much from the video, but whoever she is, she was enhanced. Her eyes glowed. Freaky stuff."

John just nodded, noting the sincerity in how Anderson said "whoever she is". So they really didn't know and Anderson was bringing John in on this because he trusted him and wanted his help – not to trap Isabelle.

"Yeah, I saw that she flooded the Alliance channels with information on soldier's being forced to alter themselves for 'the cause'." John said with a bit of disdain.

Anderson nodded and then shook his head. "Damnest thing, she set the information flood on a delay. We knew Hackett was dead and then got the information a few days later. Made his death seem a little less unusual. Admirals make enemies, but not usually ones who are willing to sneak through their ship in their own armada and take them out. None of his files have names, just dates and numbers. Some subjects, as he referred to them, volunteered and some were coerced. We don't know where he had these soldiers altered, but the fact that it was done at all is alarming."

Anderson took a deep swig of his drink as John mulled over telling Anderson what he knew. Anderson genuinely seemed to want to know, for the good of the soldiers involved, but John still wasn't willing to out Isabelle as being involved.

"You should look at his dealings with a Jack Harper. From what I've heard, he may be the key to what you're looking for. At least answers as to how these things happened."

John didn't make eye contact with Anderson as he took a deep swill of his own drink, plopping another tasty morsel of fish and rice into his maw.

"You know more than you're telling me, Shepard." Anderson accused, though his words were more confused than biting.

"I know a bit of Hackett and Harper's goings on. I don't know a lot of details, but I can point you in the right direction."

Anderson stared at him for a solid minute. John could tell out of the corner of his eye that Anderson was battling with wanting to ask for more information and leaving it be. Apparently accepting the information provided was good enough, but Anderson didn't end their discussion with that.

"I'll look in to this Harper, but Shepard, if I find out you know more…" John chuckled darkly and waved his hand dismissively.

"Yeah, yeah. After you dig a bit deeper shoot me a call and we'll discuss the findings. I'm sure you'll have more to comment on at that point."

Anderson just shook his head as he signaled for the bill. "You're a right son of a bitch, ya know that, John Shepard? You and that sister of yours always did things your own way."

John nodded and looked down, it was true that he and Isabelle were known for bending, if not breaking, the rules to fit themselves when the situation called for it.

"How is Isabelle, by the way? Any word from her?" John sighed, this was the part he hated. Anderson had been a family member to he and Isabelle since their parents died. If not a father, then a protective and guiding older brother. John hated to lie to him about this… But he had to. He couldn't let Anderson know the whole truth just yet.

"No, no word. I thought I had found something but it turned out to be a dead end. She sent me a birthday vid a few months ago though… So I know she's alive. Encrypted it to the point where Tali couldn't even hack it for a location."

John shook his head, it was the truth… partially. Anderson just chuckled and shook his head as well.

"Well, she'll show herself eventually. She'll miss you too much to stay away for too long. She's mad at us for letting her rot for a while… And we'll have to work some magic to get her out of the line of fire once the dust settles. Hackett won't be there anymore to push for her imprisonment. Up until the data leak, I thought she was the one who had killed him. But then that data leak and all of the information about the altered soldiers…" Anderson shook his head again. "Besides, murdering for being pissed off would not be her style. She could be a right bastard some times, but even that's a step outside of her line."

Anderson paid his bill with no more fanfare, patted John's shoulder and then unceremoniously left the restaurant. John just sighed, pinged Tali to see if she wanted to join him, and then mulled over his options.

He would protect Isabelle as best he could, but he would have to tell Anderson at some point about her involvement.

* * *

When he got news that Hackett had been terminated, he was pissed.

When he found out it was a female assassin, he was outright enraged.

Vakarian hadn't found her, from what he was getting from the crew. He was sending the fact that the turian was alive through every channel he had.

Vakarian was the bait, very expensive bait. Every expense was worth it. He needed her back, under his thumb and as his operative.

She'd come around, he just needed to get his hands on her first.

Hackett had helped to siphon funds for Vakarian's rejuvenation project, so he hadn't spent his own funds on the alien. Eliminating him after he had her wouldn't hurt his pocketbook too much.

He took a drag from his cigarette and stared at the back of the head of his puppet.

Desolas Arterius, what a joke. He had captured the rogue general years ago and had systematically tortured and rebuilt him for his own purposes.

He was a machine in organic flesh now, perfectly trained to have the responses that were appropriate, the perfect tool.

He tossed his used cigarette into the refuse bin and lit another.

He would have her back, one way or another.

* * *

Aria owed her one.

Actually, the blue bitch owed her several… But as The Enforcer, Aria just owed her recently.

She had sent Aria a message talking about an apology gift. Normally she wouldn't be so forward and demanding, or haughty, with the self-proclaimed Queen of Omega, but Isabelle knows that Aria likes a bit of a challenge, a bit of pushback.

She wanted to intrigue the asari, push her a bit, and get what she wanted.

She knew, from experience, that Aria would let her use the lower warehouse for her own purposes. Aria wouldn't really give a damn and would use it as an opportunity to observe The Enforcer.

For all the jobs she had done for Aria, Aria really had very little idea of The Enforcer as a person – motivations and morals were still unknowns.

Aria responded to Isabelle's missive quickly, pushing back with a question of what Isabelle was referring to.

Negotiations were Isabelle's strong point. She knew when to be gentle and kind, and she knew when to bust the figurative balls.

Now was time for some ball busting.

Isabelle brought up how Aria had set her up against four spectres, and how other associates of Aria's wouldn't like to do business if it meant a possible stop by even one spectre. She admitted that she wouldn't be able to keep her mouth from spewing the truth should anyone consult her on some less-than-legal dealings.

She had to wait a solid ten minutes for Aria's response… She imagined the angry tantrum the asari would be having internally. Aria didn't show her anger visibly unless it suited her.

When she did get a response from Aria, it was a simple question. "When?" Isabelle knew she had her then.

She sent the details to Aria. She also set a bit of a trap for her hunters. She was using herself as bait, like she liked it, and got in touch with some old friends in the information broker industry.

She let it be known that Shepard would be meeting with a Blue Suns representative on Omega, at a designated time and place. This was, of course, from an inside source within the Suns. This information was directed to be sold for an exorbitant price to ensure that only serious inquiries would be tolerated.

She smirked to herself as she signaled her ground team to start readying the shuttles. They had a trip in front of them and she wanted to make sure they had sufficient ammunition. She had a feeling they were going to need it.

She doubted that Harper himself would show, but she could take out some of his emissaries and make her message clear.

The "Don't fuck with Isabelle" message.

* * *

Garrus got an urgent message to his private terminal as they were docking at Omega. Desolas said that they had information on someone associated with the colonial disappearances and that Garrus was to apprehend, with prejudice, this person in a lower warehouse on Omega.

Delightful. He was already there and the meeting was supposed to take place in a few days.

He ordered the ship on shore leave while he went to meet with Mordin. He would kill two birds with the same proverbial stone.

Chloe was, of course, on his heels the whole time. Clucking about bringing "unverified" personnel onto the ship. Garrus ignored her.

As far as he was concerned, everyone else on the ship were the unverified ones.

Mordin had greeted Garrus as if they had just seen one another the other day, not like Garrus had been dead and in a coma for three years. Garrus shouldn't have been surprised, the salarian was never surprised.

Garrus laid out his mission to his friend, went over the specifics and was pleasantly surprised when Mordin instantly agreed.

He had apparently just gotten done curing a plague in the wards and was leaving his assistant in charge of his clinic. He was looking for a new venture and Garrus was providing him quite the mental stimulant.

He agreed to meet in Afterlife before they went to investigate this source in the warehouse and then move his stuff onto Garrus' ship after they were done.

Garrus found himself wandering through Omega after that, buying things for the ship that needed to be replaced or upgraded, ship models for himself, and ignoring Chloe's incessant chatter. She was going on and on about how Omega was wonderful for the variety of species present, how Fornax (really, Fornax) had a photo studio here, and how Aria had been the focus of many issues.

Finally they ended up in Aferlife, drinking with the social members of the crew. Garrus was watching himself to make sure he didn't get too drunk, excusing himself the moment Chloe and Kelly were busy flirting with other bar inhabitants.

He had a mission to plan.

* * *

Everything was set up, Isabelle sat atop some crates on the far side of the warehouse while she waited for her guests of honor.

Truth be told, she had no idea who Harper would send. She would expect Lawson to be one of them – maybe off in the wings.

Apprehending her was too big to send just anyone, but Isabelle wasn't exactly in on who he kept as company these days. Lawson had disappeared from all records and had only been "possibly" seen a few times since Isabelle was incarcerated. It helped to solidify her idea that Miranda was still working with Harper.

She looked around the warehouse and pleasantly noted that her ground team was properly hidden. In fact, had she not witnessed where they had hidden themselves originally, she wouldn't have any inclination to think that they were here at all… Well, unless she was assuming she was an idiot.

Whoever walked through that door would not expect her to be alone and would find it suspicious. The deceit was more of a where are they and how many are there tactic.

She didn't have to wait long. A team of four entered on the far side of the warehouse, military style. A woman, a turian, a salarian and a quarian.

Quite the mix, she was about to be impressed when she recognized the armor worn by the turian. She cursed and bit back her anger.

Her instant response was to assume that Garrus was working for Harper… Not necessarily a wrong assumption, but she doubted that he knew he was. He would've ousted her long before now if he was aware of who he was working for.

She unceremoniously leapt off of the crate, quickly snapping off the hand signal to hold to her crew.

She nearly stomped up to meet Garrus halfway.

"Vakarian. Somehow you're not who I was expecting." She stated blandly, her body reacting despite her anger at his proximity. She found herself softening her stance without realizing it.

She caught herself, of course, and rectified her stance, not missing the way Garrus' mandibles fluttered in amusement. Damn him, of course he noticed.

He lowered his weapon and signaled for his team to do the same. The only one who seemed reluctant was the human woman. Isabelle filed that away for future reference.

"Enforcer," he drawled lightly, too lightly, she wanted to belt him in the head! He was going to give her away! "I wasn't expecting you to be here." He finished more seriously as he tensed.

"She must be involved in the missing colonists! We need to take her in!" The woman behind him all but shouted.

Missing colonists? Somehow they thought she was involved in the mission Garrus was "brought back" for.

Garrus just raised his hand and silenced her, "No, she's not. But I am curious as to what she is doing here…"

Isabelle wasn't inclined to answer, and she found that she didn't have to. Clicking heels behind the group signaled that they weren't alone… Again.

Isabelle cursed inwardly at how not according to plan this was. Garrus and his team wasn't supposed to be here and she wasn't prepared for the questions her activities would invoke.

She didn't have much of a choice, as it would seem, as the clicking heels apparently brought a small army with her.

She found them quickly surrounded by heavily armed soldiers all sporting the same logo as those who had attacked the blue sun's vessel months prior.

She raised an eyebrow and sighed. Nothing ever went to plan.

"Enforcer, I believe you are meeting someone I want to meet." The heels said. Ok, so it wasn't the "heels" speaking. It was Miranda Lawson, of course.

Isabelle just sighed and eyed Garrus. He seemed confused as did his quarian companion. The salarian, Dr. Mordin Solus if she placed him correctly, looked positively intrigued. The human, however, looked relieved. Interesting.

Miranda huffed when Isabelle didn't respond and tapped her foot expectantly. Not used to waiting, this one.

Instead of answering, Isabelle walked up to the statue of perfection. She had to admit the woman really did have an amazing ass… and Isabelle would freely admit that no amount of squats would allow her to replicate it.

She walked around Miranda, eyeing the woman and keeping a relaxed body pose, visibly annoying the other woman.

"And why would I give away my contacts?" She asked quietly, putting the appropriate amount of "I give zero fucks" tone into her voice as she walked away back towards the crates.

She shot Garrus a look and he tensed a bit, preparing for something to go south.

"Miranda, are you sure she's going to be here?" The woman behind Garrus chimed in almost absently, obviously not thinking.

Garrus practically growled out a "Who?" before Isabelle could even think to question. This was apparently a surprise to him and Isabelle was willing to let this play out.

"Someone of great importance to my organization." Miranda snapped, giving the other woman an unreadable look.

Well, not wholly unreadable. It was a look of communication and consternation… Interesting.

This entire experience was just simply interesting to Isabelle. It appeared that while she was setting a trap, someone else was as well, and had not communicated the trap out to everyone. Well, at least did not go over all of the purported players.

Isabelle supplied the answer with a hint of amusement, "You're looking for Isabelle Shepard."

Garrus growled louder at the drop of the name, Miranda relaxed probably thinking that she was going to get what she wanted, and the other woman stared at Garrus like she wanted him to either ravage her or she was terrified he would murder her.

The second seemed more likely judging from the way his body was thrumming.

"Precisely. She is a wanted criminal and my organization feels we could help her." Miranda answered impeccably.

"Help her? How so?" Isabelle inquired with genuine curiosity. She was genuinely curious as to what bullshit would spew from Miranda's mouth.

Miranda had, obviously, not realized that Isabelle Shepard and The Enforcer were one in the same. Isabelle had clear memories of Miranda's testing after her improvements. She wanted this woman dead, but there was something poetic in pulling one over on someone who bragged and touted over her supposed grand intelligence.

"That I would only discuss with her, you understand. She will resist us at first, she is unaware of our intentions." Isabelle had to give it to Miranda, if Isabelle hadn't been aware of all of the details of the situation.

"Well, in that case," Isabelle looked at her nails… Well, she pretended to, "No."

She locked eyes with the taller woman.

"You will help me, whether you want to or not."

Isabelle had to laugh then, she looked to Garrus and waved him over to her. He followed, reluctantly. He was out of his element here and Isabelle felt a bit bad for him.

"Shooting is going to start," she whispered, "I recommend getting your team to the far right and my team will keep them out of the cross fire."

He stood and looked at her for a moment before nodding, letting her control the situation. He signaled his team over to the side, everyone following except the woman.

"Chloe, let's move over here and let them discuss this." He tried to play it off like he was bowing out of the conversation, when he was actually moving them to help with the mop up. He had a good idea, Isabelle knew, of what was going to happen. He knew how Isabelle operated for the most part.

This, Chloe, did not listen and instead walked to Miranda's side.

So that's how it was.

"Miranda Lawson, you should know better than to try and take down a Shepard with minimal enforcements." Isabelle laid her cards on the table.

The way Miranda tensed and called to her team said everything she needed, the woman knew she was in trouble now.

Her assault team started firing at Isabelle as she darted behind cover, signaling to her own team to open fire.

To Isabelle's pleasant surprise, the remainder of Garrus' team were earnestly opening fire at Miranda's troupe. Apparently this Chloe was the only one in on the plan.

Finally, only Miranda was left. Isabelle flat out sauntered up to the woman as she ran out of thermal clips.

"I surrender." She muttered disdainfully.

"Of course you do." Isabelle answered calmly, eyeing an injured Chloe. The woman had only been shot in the shoulder, but she was whining like she'd been gut shot. She was no danger.

"Now, Miranda, let's talk." As she spoke, she pulled her mask down, freely revealing her whole face and identity.

This was all part of the plan, just a few more pawns than expected.

"Harper wants what's his." Miranda ground out, apparently just as defiant as ever.

"I'm sure he does, and I suppose I do owe him a favor after bringing Garrus back to life for me." Isabelle stated calmly as Garrus tensed and Miranda scoffed.

"Bringing the turian back was a mistake, it did us no good in the end and apparently he found you before we did… and didn't say shit." Miranda groused.

"Oh, language my dear. Call up Harper." Isabelle's tone went from playful to stern, walking behind Miranda and grabbing her by her hair. "Now."

Miranda, to her credit, didn't make a sound as Isabelle yanked her hair harder than necessary. She typed something on her omni tool and released an orb into the air.

Within seconds a slightly different looking Jack Harper materializing. He walked, with an orb imbedded in his chest, towards Isabelle and Miranda.

"Shepard, I'm surprised at you." He started, taking a puff from his cigarette, "We could talk about this in person, no one else has to get hurt." He seemed to glance at Chloe to make his point. Isabelle wasn't even sure what his visual range was, this communication method was all new to her.

"No, I don't need to talk, I just wanted to send a message." She smiled as she spoke, seeming calm.

"Oh? And what message would that be?" He asked with mock curiosity, she knew he didn't give a damn what she wanted to say. He thought he owned her already.

And maybe he did, but she wouldn't go quietly.

As she spoke, she pulled a rather large knife from her back harness. "Don't fuck with me and mine." She glanced at Garrus as she said "mine" and the proceeded to run the blade ever so firmly over Miranda's neck.

The woman gurgled a cry as her life's essence drained down the front of her too-tight cat suit. Isabelle let Miranda's head go as the woman crumpled forward, her death coming quickly as her brain and organs starved for blood and oxygen.

Harper actually looked… Angry, hurt, some mixture of the two, as he watched the life leave Miranda.

"I will kill off every. Single. One of your team who come after me. I let you railroad me once and it cost me everything, I will not do it again." She said as she stepped back trying to avoid getting blood on her boots.

"You will regret this Shepard!" He all but yelled before cutting the connection.

Isabelle went to retrieve the little communications ball, but it self-destructed before she could get to it.

She sighed, shrugged, and then signaled to her team. "Back to the boat, boys." She walked up to Garrus who was now seeing to his injured crew member.

"What are you going to do with her?" She asked softly.

"I don't know… Hell, I'm half tempted to deposit her on the ship and say fuck off to the rest of them." He said seriously.

The quarian stepped forward. "For what it's worth, Vakarian, I was unaware of any deceit. I would like to stay with you and help with your mission."

Isabelle cocked her head to the side and considered him, he seemed genuine, but only time would tell.

Garrus nodded and had his team move the injured woman, presumably back to his ship.

Garrus took the opportunity to take a step towards Isabelle and run his hand over her cheek and neck. "Was that necessary?" He asked while motioning to the deceased woman.

She sighed and shrugged, "Maybe not to that extent, but she was his right hand person… And his head surgeon." She looked up at him, seeing the understanding blossom in his eyes as the meaning of what this woman was to her spread over him.

"Well, then, I'm glad she's dead." He sighed and looked back over the carnage.

"I need a new ship." That was the understatement of the year.

"Well, it just so happens than I have one." She waggled her eyebrows at him and he laughed and pulled her in close. "Do you now?" He asked while pressing his forehead against hers.

"Yes, I do. I could, you know, help with your investigation. I've ousted myself so, no more hiding."

He laughed again and dragged her out of the warehouse of death. "Yes, I think that may just work out." He said.

The bodies cooled on the floor as they meandered back towards the hangar bay.


End file.
